


He's The Man

by bellafarella, sleepyfaceandsnark (teamwinchesterbros)



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Boarding School, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Twins, Angst, Awkwardness, Boarding School, Boyfriends, Crushes, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, Flirting, Fluff, Friendship, Getting Together, High School, Homophobic Language, Jealousy, M/M, Private School, Roommates, Secret Crush, Smut, Soccer, fraternal twins, homophobic school, soccer alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-08
Updated: 2015-09-10
Packaged: 2018-03-29 12:46:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 12
Words: 22,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3896872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bellafarella/pseuds/bellafarella, https://archiveofourown.org/users/teamwinchesterbros/pseuds/sleepyfaceandsnark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ian disguises as his twin brother, Lip, in an attempt to play for his school's soccer team. The only problem is that he's falling for his brother's roommate, Mickey.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Twins

**Author's Note:**

> 'She's the man' AU that we all knew we needed.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Well, if you can’t join ‘em, beat ‘em."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mandy and Mickey are not related in this story, nor are Mickey, Iggy, and Colin, basically Mickey's an only child (and his mother didn't die). Also, the other Gallagher children do not exist.

Ian loves soccer, he’s been playing ever since he could remember. His father, Clayton Gallagher, would take the soccer ball and pass it to Ian and his fraternal twin brother Philip, though he liked being called Lip. Though, Lip hated soccer, he wasn’t the kind of kid to play sports, he was much better at school, that kind of stuff.

 

Even though Lip and Ian are twins they could not be more different, they don’t like the same things nor do they have the same taste in romantic partners. Ian realized he was gay ever since he hit puberty. He had a feeling earlier on, however it got confirmed when he started imagining guys instead of girls when he would masturbate. Being fraternal twins they aren’t supposed to look so similar, yet here they are practically looking like identical twins. They’ve always been told that if they had the same hair color they would basically be identical. Ian has fiery red hair whereas Lip has very dark blondish hair, he’s basically a brunette.

 

Ian and Lip didn’t have the greatest arrival into this world. Their mother Monica Gallagher had an affair with her husband Frank’s brother Clayton. Seeing as though Monica and Frank lived in the south side of Chicago, Clayton (being the wealthy man that he is) bought Monica a home not too far off from where he lives with his wife Lucy and newborn son, Jacob, for her and his sons Lip and Ian. Monica only told Clayton they were his sons about three years into their lives and that’s when she decided to leave Frank, therefore Clayton bought her the house. His wife, Lucy, hated that he did that but she knew he had to unless they wanted it to get ugly with lawsuits, seeing as though Lip and Ian are his biological sons.

 

Clayton wanting to know his sons cleared out a couple of rooms in his home and made them their own rooms. He and Monica came to an agreement that the boys would live half with her and half the time with him, Lucy, and Jacob.

 

Once the boys started high school they really saw the differences between them. Ian was always out playing soccer and wasn’t too bad at school, whereas Lip was naturally smart, like ridiculously smart, he’s basically a genius. Therefore, Lip never tries too hard, he barely even showed up to school most of the time, and when he did he was in the school’s lab tinkering with all kinds of gadgets.

 

Ian and Lip have been in serious relationships this past year. It was the end of summer now, before their junior year of high school. Ian has been dating Justin, they’re both on their school’s soccer team, and Lip has been dating Rachel. Rachel doesn’t go to the same school as them and she’s a real bitch (according to Ian… and everyone), but Lip was with her because, well, she’s beautiful and Lip doesn’t really care about having girl friends all that much but she’s kind of psychotic and won’t take no for an answer when he tries to break it off with her. He’s ended it about ten times this past month.

 

Ian on the other hand has been with Justin since the middle of sophomore year and he’s pretty damn sure he’s in love with him. Their school, Lakeshore Preparatory, is pretty open. They occasionally get assholes calling them homophobic slurs but Ian has gotten really muscular these past couple years and can beat the shit out of any asshole who calls him or his boyfriend names. Lip is also ready to fight anyone who calls his twin names, he isn’t as strong as Ian is but he is scrappy.

 

Ian was at a beach party with Justin and a bunch of other people from school. They were fucking around with the soccer ball and Ian whooping their asses. Justin tackled Ian and they started wrestling playfully when he got Ian pinned underneath him on the sand.

 

“Jesus, watch it,” Ian says when Justin lands on top of him a little roughly.

“Ah shit, sorry,” Justin says.

Ian smiles at him and says, “Hi,” before taking his face in both hands and kissing him on the lips.

When they break apart Justin says, “You’re getting really good at soccer.”

“I would hope so, I’ve been playing for forever,” Ian says sarcastically.

“Yeah, yeah,” Justin says pecking him on the lips once more.

“You really think I’m that good?” Ian asks seeking approval though he doesn’t really know why, he knows he’s good.

“You’re better than half the guys on the team,” Justin says.

“Only half?” Ian teases.

Justin rolls his eyes and kisses Ian again.

 

The next day is the first day back at soccer practice and Ian’s walking towards the field with his two best friends, Mandy and Svetlana. Ian met Mandy in his freshman year when a professor was getting too close to her and he tripped him. Mandy called Ian her ‘knight in shining armour’ and tried to make a move on him but he told her that he was gay and they’ve been best friends ever since. They only met Lana the year after when she transferred over from Russia, Ian and Mandy saw her sit alone at lunch outside so they went over to sit with her and instantly took a liking to the too tough girl. She has a mouth on her but she’s gorgeous and will hurt any fucker who says something about Mandy or Ian.

 

Mandy and Svetlana always come to watch Ian’s soccer practices for two reasons. First, because Ian’s their best friend and they want to support him, and secondly, because of all the hot guys on the team getting sweaty and running around.

 

Ian started practice with the guys and a fight started between him and another player, Marcus.

 

“The fuck is your problem, asshole?!” Ian yelled as he pushed him against the chest.

“You! I don’t even know why you’re on this team, you’re not that good,” Marcus snapped. He’s Justin’s best friend and a total fucking douchebag.

Ian laughed, “Yeah fucking right, you just have a hard-on for your best friend and jealous I’m with him. You fucking know I’m good at soccer. Tell him, Justin.”

 

When Justin didn’t say anything the guys on the team started to laugh.

 

“Justin… Yesterday you told me how I’m better than than half the guys on the team!” Ian said getting angry that his boyfriend isn’t backing him up.

“I never said that,” Justin said looking around at the team who were surrounding him, since he’s the team captain.

“What are you talking about? Why are you lying?!” Ian yelled at him getting frustrated and more hurt by the second.

When Justin didn’t say anything Ian said, “Fine, I’ll just get into Lake Forest with Lip and beat your ass on that team.”

Everyone on the field started laughing, including Justin who said, “Aw babe, you can’t get into that school.”

“The fuck? Why not?” Ian asks.

“Cause you’re gay, and frankly not as smart as Lip who did get in,” Justin says.

“Wow, you’re a fucking asshole,” Ian says, “I could get into that school.”

“Ian, end of discussion,” Justin said stammering the last few words out and raising an eyebrow in challenge.

“Fine. End of relationship,” Ian says back. All the guys on the team yell a chorus of ‘Ohhhh!’

“Oh, don’t be like that!” Justin says as Ian starts to walk away. “I just don’t want you to get hurt.”

Ian says, “You are so full of shit,” before tossing the soccer ball at his head and walking away.

 

Ian later finds out from his coach that he’s suspended from the team for starting a fight and won’t be able to play at the first game in two weeks when school starts, against their rival school, Lake Forest Academy.

 

After that, Ian’s walking home with his snapback on with his hoodie up over it, earphones in his ears, and soccer ball in hand when someone yanks him back right at his gate to his home.

“Ow,” Ian says a little too loudly seeing as his music is still blasting in his ears. He takes them out and is staring right at Lip’s bitch of an (ex)girlfriend.

“Ew, it’s you. God, you and your brother look scary alike from the back,” Rachel says.

Ian scoffs and lays on the sarcasm thick, “Hi Rachel, it’s so good to see you too!”

“I’m looking for Lip, where is he?” Rachel asks.

“I don’t know,” Ian shrugs.

“Just remind him how lucky he is to be in my life and tell him to give me a call if he wants to stay in it. Okay?” Rachel says.

“Okay. Does he have your number? 1-800-Beyotch,” Ian sasses and starts to snicker.

Rachel mimics him before putting her sunglasses back on and walking away. Ian rolls his eyes at her and walks into his home just to be greeted way too excitedly by his mother.

 

“Ian! Honey!” Monica says way too excitedly.

“Mom, not now. I had a really bad day,” Ian says.

“Oh no, what happened, baby?” Monica asks.

“I got suspended from my team,” Ian says trying to make his way up to his room.

“Oh, how sad,” Monica says, though she doesn’t really seem to care all that much, she’s got the attention span of a toddler. “What about Justin? He couldn’t stop you from being suspended?”

“He basically started it all. I dumped him,” Ian said stopping on the first step.

“What why?” Monica asks.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Ian says half way up the stairs now.

“But he’s so handsome, and rugged,” Monica says dreamily.

“Then why don’t you date him, mom?” Ian says sarcastically before going into Lip’s open bedroom.

 

“Hey, Lip,” Ian says plopping onto his bed.

“Hey,” Lip says as he packs some shit into a bag.

“You okay?” Ian asks.

“Yup,” Lip says.

Ian says, “Rachel was looking for you.”

When Lip just hums Ian laughs, “Why do you even date her anyway?”

“She’s hot,” Lip says simply.

Ian fake vomits and Lip laughs at him. Lip then tosses a duffle bag out the window.

“You know, you could use the front door…” Ian says.

“But mom can’t see me, she thinks I’m staying at dad’s. Dad thinks I’m staying at mom’s, and in two days they both think I’m going away to school. That is the beauty of our parents not being together,” Lip says.

Ian looks confused and says, “Wait so where are you going?”

“New York, for a couple of weeks,” Lip says with no explanation.

“The hell for?” Ian asks sitting up.

“A few guys got wind of this awesome robotics lab and they know some people so we’re going to go check it out. There’s also a robotics competition we’re entering, prize money is a couple grand,” Lip finally explains.

“What are you going to do about school?” Ian asks.

“Yeah… I was kind of hoping you could help me with that. Can you pretend to be mom and call the school for me? Tell them I’m sick, I don’t know, something that lasts like a couple weeks. You’ve always been better at doing a girls voice than me,” Lip smirks.

“Ha. Ha,” Ian says as he flips him off, “Lip, you just got kicked out of Lakeshore for skipping. This is not the way you want to start out, especially at Lake Forest.”

Lip just rolled his eyes and started to slip out the window. He says a farewell to his brother, “I’ll see you in two weeks.”

“Lip. Lip!” Ian says louder.

Monica comes into the room and asks, “Were you just talking to your brother?”

“No… What?” Ian says scrambling. He picks up the phone and says, “Yes, on the phone. He’s at dads. Bye, dad…”

“Oh,” Monica says before wandering off, probably to take another xanax.

 

Ian walks over to Lip’s dresser and picks up a photo of him wearing the same snapback hat as him and looks at himself in the mirror. They do really look alike.

“Well, if you can’t join ‘em, beat ‘em,” Ian says to himself with a glint in his eye.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Show us the love with kudos & comments :D
> 
> Come find us: http://bellafarella.tumblr.com/ & http://sleepyfaceandsnark.tumblr.com/


	2. Ian to Lip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ian disguises himself as Lip and heads off to his new school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys are liking this story so far. We will update every Thursday, so we'll see you next week!  
> Hope you enjoy this chapter :)

The next day Ian, Mandy, and Svetlana go over to Ian’s friend Brian’s place. He’s a huge theater actor and has what Ian needs to pull this off.

 

“I’m sorry, you’re doing what?” Brian asks confused. Brian’s in his early twenties and met Ian at a club that he got into over the summer and they hit it off (strictly as friends).

“I need your help to make me look a bit more like Lip. I’m going to go to his new school and pretend to be him, join their soccer team, and beat Lakeshore when they play them in two weeks,” Ian explains, with a nodding Mandy and Svetlana behind him.

“Aren’t they going to know you’re not your brother?” Brian asks.

“No, nobody at Lake Forest has even met Lip,” Mandy says.

“He just need wig to cover his short orange hair,” Lana says in her still very present Russian accent.

“And something to help curl the wig a bit since Lip’s hair is kind of wavy,” Mandy adds.

“Oh, and maybe some like stick-on sideburns or something that’s the same color as his hair,” Ian also adds. The two girls nod in agreement.

“Oh God, you guys are all so serious. Fine, okay. Let’s see what we’ve got,” Brian says.

Brian tries many looks on Ian. Different facial hair and different wigs until they get the right one.

“It’s perfect!” Ian exclaims as he touches the wig.

Brian playfully smacks his hand away, “It’s not done yet.” He fishes through his kit and comes up with small hair rollers that were only a few centimeters in circumference.

“What’s that for?” Ian asks looking at the curlers skeptically.

“For giving it the waves your brother is so famous for,” Brian explains. Ian rolls his eyes as Brian puts the curlers in the wig on Ian’s head to demonstrate how he’d have to do it when he’s at school. “And then you let it sit.”

“For how long?” Ian asks. He looks at himself in the mirror with the curlers and he can’t help but want to beat himself up. He looks ridiculous.

“Shouldn’t be more than 15 minutes or so. You only need slight waves,” Brian explains.

 

Brian takes the curlers out after the desired time and Ian is surprised at how much it looks like Lip’s hair. Brian puts the sideburns into place and Mandy and Svetlana have to do a double take at how similar Ian looks to Lip now.

“Shit, orange boy. You are not orange boy anymore,” Svetlana says.

Ian looks at himself in the mirror and laughs at how much he doesn’t look like himself, Brian even had to change the color of his eyebrows with an eyebrow pencil to hide his natural red.

 

Ian moves his head to get a better look at himself in different angles. He says, “Shit I really do pass as him, huh?” Svetlana and Mandy nod in agreement.

Brian shows him a few more times how to properly put waves in his wig (if anything should happen to it that would cause the waves to flatten), how to shade his eyebrows, and put on his sideburns. Ian commits it to memory.

 

Lucky for him, and his wallet, Ian doesn’t have to buy new clothes as he and Lip basically share their wardrobe. He does, however, use some of his money to buy school products that were special for his...or Lip’s school.

 

A few days later, Ian packs his shit up and is as confident in his disguise as he’s ever going to be. He’s about to leave home to meet Brian when Monica stops him before he’s successfully out the door. Thank god he decided to wait till he was at Brian’s to turn into Lip.

“Where are you off to?” Monica asks him.

“Umm I’m going to...to...Dads!” Ian stutters out. He didn’t really think this conversation through.

“Dads? Why-” Monica starts when Ian interrupts her before she’s able to carry on, “I thought he could help me some with my soccer.”

“Oh honey. I thought you were doing so good with that,” Monica says.

She’d know if she came to a game once in a while. “I am, Mom. But I could always be better. You know since I got suspended from the team and everything.”

“And your dad is going to help you with that?” Monica asks.

“Yes,” Ian says simply.

Monica smiles, “Well good then.” She nods at Ian. “Have fun, honey.”

Ian gives her a tight smile, “Will do.” He waves goodbye and he’s out the door.

 

Ian makes it to Brian’s and watches one more time as his friend puts on his wig, styles it, and applies the color to his eyebrows.

“You ready… Lip?” Brian laughs.

Ian sighs. “Lets do this shit.”

 

The car ride consisted mostly of Ian trying to imitate things he’s heard Lip say, trying his best to get the pretentiousness perfectly.

 

Brian parks the car and Ian gets his stuff out of the trunk.

“Hey, man. Sup?” A friendly student greets, walking by Ian.

Ian lifts his head in an attempt at a cocky gesture of greeting, something Lip would do. The guy smiles at Ian and continues walking. Ian watches the guy until he’s out of earshot.

“Oh my God, he knew!” Ian says to Brian in a loud whisper.

“What?” Brian asks confused.

Ian gets back in the car. “He knew. He knew. Fuck this. I can’t do this. Lets go back. Go back.”

“Ian he didn’t know anything-”

“Go back. Reverse reverse.”

“He doesn’t know anything. You’re being ridiculous. Stop. I’m not reversing.”

Ian stops yelling and breathes in.

“You’re fine,” Brian says. “Relax. You got this.”

Ian nods, though not fully reassured. He gets back out of the car and stands up straight, grabbing his bag and putting over his shoulder.

 

He turns to walk away when he hears Brian call to him, “Hey?”

Ian turns to him, Brian holding his soccer ball, he throws it to him and says, “Be a good boy, Lip.”

Ian grins and walks towards the building that would give him the information he needed about his room and general things about what to expect on the first week.

It ends up being more like a 10 second conversation as he’s just handed his dorm assignment and a set of keys along with a small packet of papers that is labeled as a “Welcome Package”.  

 

Ian makes his way to his dorms, getting lost along the way and dodging a few people playing sports in the hallways. He finally finds the door that matches the letters and numbers that are on his keys.

“Fuckin’ finally. Jesus,” He mumbles as he shoves his key in the lock to open the door.

 

He opens the door to find three guys inside; one dark haired and shorter than the rest but with a great build...and he happened to not be wearing a shirt.

Shit,don’t stare, don’t fuckign stare, Ian thinks as he looks the guy over.

“Hey,” Ian says, voice wavering a bit. He clears his throat. “Hey,” he says again, more confidently. “You, uh, you must be my roommates.”

“Must be,” The shorter, raven haired guy says.

Ian puts his bags on the empty bed.

“You got a name?”

Ian looks back at the dark haired boy, “Umm I...Lip. Lip Gallagher.” Ian holds out his hand to offer a shake but the guy, his roommate, just nudges his head up and points to himself.

“I’m Mickey,” He turns around and points to the guys behind him. “Iggy,” He says pointing to the other one with dark hair, though lighter than Mickey’s. “Colin,” He points to the other one whose hair is almost blonde. “They’re across the hall.”  

Ian nods his head to them since that’s apparently the greeting they’re going with.

“Lip Gallagher? Aren’t you supposed to be a genius or some shit?” The one Ian now knows as Iggy asks.

“Uh well I…”

“You don’t look like a genius,” Colin comments.

“I’m really good at disguises,” Ian laughs sitting on his bed uneasily, almost falling off, to the annoyance of Mickey. Ian notices the soccer ball on Mickey’s desk. “Do you, uh, know when soccer tryouts start?”

Mickey raises his brows at him “Noon. You play?”

“Absolutely. Center Forward.” He gets up from his spot on his bed and goes to his bag. “So do you guys play?”

“Uh yeah. I’m a striker. Colin and Iggy are halfbacks,” Mickey informs him.

“Sweet,” Ian zips open his luggage and tries to unpack. He doesn’t realize when his package of rollers falls out of his bag until he hears Mickey.

“The fuck is that?” His roommate asks, pointing to the pack of rollers on the ground.

“Uhhhhh.”

“Are those rollers? Like for your hair?” Mickey asks confused, brows furrowed.

Iggy and Colin start to snicker.

Ian looks at the pack on the ground. “No they’re uhh.” He can’t really think of an excuse for what else they could possibly be. He pretends to act shocked. “Oh shit I guess they are. I must’ve grabbed the wrong bag back home.”

Mickey walks towards him and peers into Ian’s bag, “Yeah must’ve.” He lightly shoves it. “This one doesn’t have your knitting needles in it, Grandma.”

Iggy and Colin crack up as Mickey laughs lightly by them.

“Man your roommate is fuckin’ weird,” Ian hears one of Mickey’s friends say as he turns around and stuffs his hair curlers back in his bag. He doesn’t need to hear Mickey’s confirmation to know he agrees.

 

 _Well, first impression off to a good start._ Ian thinks bitterly. _This is going to be fun..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Show us the love with kudos & comments :D
> 
> Come find us: http://bellafarella.tumblr.com/ & http://sleepyfaceandsnark.tumblr.com/


	3. Second String

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soccer tryouts don't go as well as Ian had imagined.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We will update every Thursday, so we'll see you next week!  
> Hope you enjoy this chapter :)

Ian only had to endure a couple more hours with his _hot but shouldn’t be thinking he’s hot roommate_ and his friends before soccer tryouts.

 

Ian made it to the field in his red shorts and grey t-shirt before the coach started his speech.

 

“Let’s start the season like we ended last, sharp!” Coach Wilkins shouts. Every male trying out is standing in a straight line facing the field. The coach walks in front of them, down the line, looking at every single one of them like he’s assessing them.

“Alright! Shirts and skins!” The coach yells out before dividing the players up into two teams.

 

Ian thanks his lucky stars that Mickey’s a skin because he gets to see him shirtless again but then he thinks to himself that he can’t be thinking of his roommate like that so he averts his gaze. Ian is also a skin and he can’t help but notice the way Mickey is looking at him. He seems to be trying to be very subtle but there’s these small looks and his eyes lingering over his body for a beat too long for it to just be a look. Just as quickly as Ian noticed Mickey’s looks, Mickey averts his gaze and gets to running laps as the coach blows his whistle.

 

Ian didn’t realize how tough tryouts were at this school. They don’t go easy on you whatsoever. The coach is pushing them like they’re training for the world cup or something. Ian’s a tough guy and can run really fast and for long periods of time, he can do pushups and pullups, and he can kick a ball yards away, but he cannot seem to keep up with these guys. They are on a whole other level than his team back at Lakeshore.

 

Ian gets through every step of the tryout and when they get to pushups he cannot seem to do as many as he’s used to. He’s put out of his misery when the coach blows his whistle to signal that the tryouts are over.

 

Ian’s about to run his hand over his head when he remembers the wig so he just touches it to make sure it’s still in place. When he feels that it is he puts his t-shirt back on (without it touching his wig) and goes to stand with everyone else.

 

“I’ve seen a lot of energy, and commitment out there today, and that makes the coach proud. Now I’m going to split you up into first string and second string. You second stringers, don’t take it too hard, you’re just as much a part of this team as the first stringers, apart from of course, playing the game part,” Coach explains.

 

He starts handing out yellow jerseys  to those who are part of the second string. Then it happens. “Gallagher. Second string.”

“The rest of you, congratulations. First stringers. Now hit the showers,” Coach concludes the tryouts.

 

Ian can’t believe he didn’t make the team. Well, he did technically, but he won’t get to play against Lakeshore and that was the whole fucking point of him coming to Lake Forest and pretending to be Lip. He needed to change this.

 

All the guys were walking to the showers when Ian realized he can’t take a shower now with all these people around. His wig, his eyebrows and sideburns, they’d know.

 

Ian was saved by the coach, “Gallagher, no shower for you.”

“Okay,” Ian says too brightly.

“Principal Gold wants to see you in his office,” The coach says. Ian grabs his stuff and runs out of the locker room and towards the principal’s office.

 

Ian’s sitting in the principal’s office as he awaits him.

“So stupid, came here for this, can’t even make first string. They probably know I’m not Lip and that’s why I’m here,” Ian murmurs to himself. He looks to his right and sees a filing cabinet.

“Lip’s file,” Ian says as he gets up and makes his way to it slowly. He opens it up and finds Lip’s folder.

“Could it be any bigger? Fuck, Lip,” Ian mutters as he pulls out the giant folder.

The principal opens his office door and Ian drops the folder back in and slams the drawer closed.

“Mr. Gallagher!” Principal Gold greets as he closes the door and turns to face Ian.

“Harry Gold, headmaster,” Gold introduces, “So nice to meet you.”

Ian shakes his hand, “Hello sir, heard you wanted to see me.”

“I’d like to say welcome, welcome to Lake Forest, welcome, welcome, welcome,” Gold sings. Ian can’t help but feel very confused. This headmaster is so damn weird. He’s a short man with no hair and big glasses on his face. “I just wanted to have you in to say welcome. See how you’re doing.”

“Hmm.. yeah, I’m doing great,” Ian says casually.

“Well, let’s take a look at your file, Philip,” Gold says.

“Lip, uh, it’s Lip,” Ian stutters.

Gold smiles at him and nods as he takes out his, Lip’s, file. Ian moves away from the cabinet and turns around to make sure everything is still in place, wig, eyebrows, sideburns.

“You’re busted,” Gold says and Ian’s heart stops. “I know you don’t want to sit here and talk to the headmaster but I won’t take no for an answer. Have a seat,” Gold continues.

They both sit and Gold says, “How do you like campus?”

“Beautiful,” Ian says simply.

“You know I was a transfer student myself once upon a time, so I take a special interest in all the transfer students that come to this school. As an, unofficial big brother if you will,” Gold says before chuckling, “Don’t be surprised if I just pop in unannounced from time to time just to check in.”

Ian feels very nervous and says, “Yeah, uh, I look forward to it.”

“Alright, now scoot,” Gold says as he points to his office door.

 

Ian can’t get out of there fast enough it seems because he bumps right into a small, blonde girl. They both fall to the ground and she exclaims out in a small jolt of pain.

“Shit, I’m sorry,” Ian says as he starts picking up all her books.

“No, it’s my fault,” She says as she helps him.

Gold emerges from his office as he says, “What is- oh, getting to know the opposite sex are we? Male-female dynamics. All that. Sexual tension, it’s all apart of the high school experience. Continue, continue, but uh, keep it clean.” He then goes back into his office.

Ian lets out a strained laugh and sigh of relief. The girl he bumped into starts laughing.

He shakes his head and says, “Is he always that _friendly?_ ”

“Are you kidding? That’s him being rude,” The girl says.

They stand up and Ian clears his throat before saying, “Here are your books.”

“Thanks,” The girl says with a big smile. She’s giving him these intense eyes that he can’t handle so he just mutters a “see ya” before walking off.

 

Ian was so over this day, when was it going to end? He went back to his dorm to try to get as clean as possible without having a shower before getting dressed and heading out to the cafeteria for dinner.

 

Ian gets his dinner from the headmaster in a hairnet… weird, before he sees Mickey, Iggy, and Colin sitting at a table.

“Hey guys, mind if I join?” Ian asks standing next to their table. They barely acknowledge him so he sits down in the only seat available between Iggy and Colin.

When they don’t say anything Ian says, “So those soccer tryouts were bullshit. I mean, second string, common. That’s ridiculous.”

Again no response so Ian tries another topic, “So the game against Lakeshore should be interesting.”

“And why would that be interesting?” Mickey asks looking at him with some sort of glare or, well, Ian doesn’t really know. He can’t seem to figure Mickey out just yet.

“Well… my brother goes there and used to d-be friends with that tool Justin Drayton,” Ian says but then they all start to laugh.

Mickey says, “I know him, I made him cry once during a game.”

“Wait- that was you?” Ian asks. He remembers that day and game against Lake Forest.

“Absolutely. That fucking faggot had it coming,” Mickey says in a joking manner remembering the day it happened. Iggy and Colin are still laughing. Ian doesn’t know what to say, or think for that matter. He knows this school has a sort of reputation for being homophobic, like they don’t seem to accept students if they are openly gay or queer, but hearing Mickey say something like that he doesn’t know what to think.

 

Ian’s jolted out of his thoughts by Iggy coughing loudly and muttering, “Incoming.” All four boys turn their heads to where Iggy is looking and Ian sees that blonde girl he bumped into earlier with another girl.

Ian says with all the macho fucking bullshit he can muster, “Check out the booty on that blondie.”

“Uh oh,” Iggy says.

“Don’t talk about her that way,” Mickey says in all seriousness. Ian can’t help but deflate at that.

“Oh, is that your girlfriend?” Ian asks teasingly but he really wants to know Mickey’s answer.

Iggy starts to laugh and says, “He wishes!”

Mickey glares at Iggy and Colin says, “Until recently she was dating this college guy but he dumped her, and I hear she’s a total mess right now, like confidence, self-esteem, all down.”

“Which means it’s time to pounce!” Iggy says and high fives Colin when he says, “Exactly!”

They turn to see this guy walking past them and over to the table where the blond girl is sitting.

 

Mickey groans and says, “I hate that guy.”

 

The girl noticeably sits closer to her friend when he sits at her table, and he just looks over at their table before talking to the girl.

 

Ian scoffs and says, “Looks like you’ve got some competition.”

Iggy and Colin snicker. Mickey says, “It’s just Patrick,” and Colin says, “Total geek.”

 

Ian looks over at the blond girl and says, “She looks so sad. It’s heartbreaking.” He turns to see the three guys looking at him weird and he continues, “It’s just- I can relate, you know? I just got out of a bad relationship too. You think you know someone and you realize it’s all been a big lie…”

All three guys get up to leave and Ian stutters out, “Uh, alright, catch you guys later…” before he’s left alone at the table.

 

 _Yup, this is a shitty fucking day,_ Ian thinks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Show us the love with kudos & comments :D
> 
> Come find us: http://bellafarella.tumblr.com/ & http://sleepyfaceandsnark.tumblr.com/


	4. Wish That I Could Be Like The Cool Kids

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ian smiles, happy that Brian’s plan actually worked. He was now a cool kid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We will update every Thursday, so we'll see you next week!  
> Hope you enjoy this chapter :)

It’s the third or so day of Ian being Lip and he has yet to find the time when the showers are empty or nearly empty so he could take his disguise off without anyone being suspicious or catching him. He finally finds a time in the middle of the night. He quickly looks around the showers and finds them empty.

 

“Fuck yes! Fuck yes, I get to take a shower. I get to take a shower,” He chants/sings lightly as he starts taking off his wig and fake facial hair. “I get to take a shower.” He sniffs his clothes and turns away from the smell with a groan, “I need this.”

 

He pulls his shirt over his head and slips out of his pants. He hides his stuff in his bag just in case and grabs his soap and shampoo, walking over to the large shower. Life would be a lot easier if they were smaller individual showers but an easy life wasn’t exactly Ian’s thing.

 

He turns on the lukewarm water and sighs, refreshed, as the water hits his body and soaks his head. He moves his hand quickly back and forth on his natural buzzcut and smoothes the water down his face. He grabs the soap, spreading it along his body, covering it fully. He does this two more times and watches as the dirt and grime washes down the drain. He relaxes under the water just standing under it for a few minutes.

 

He’s about to grab the shampoo when he hears the squeak of shoes on the bathroom floor. He freezes holding his shampoo bottle. He waits hoping he was just hearing things but then he hears the sound of a bag opening and closing and someone muttering a ‘fuck’. He thinks it sounds familiar as it echoes across the bathroom. He looks out of the corner of his eye and spots the guy walking towards the shower. It’s his fuckin roommate. Shit. Of fucking course it is.

 

Ian quickly turns his head away to hide his face, already trying to think of excuses to use if Mickey recognizes him.

 

“Hey,” Mickey says tiredly and in a way that wasn’t really asking for a hey back.

Ian clears his throat and makes his throat deeper to disguise it, “Hey.”

 

Mickey doesn’t say anything back and starts his shower. Ian tries his best to resist sneaking a peek at his fit roommate. He has to keep with his disguise so he stops himself, several times. He does, however, feel Mickey’s eyes on him. His heart beat quickens as he’s unsure if it’s because he recognizes him or he’s interested in him in some way. Judging by the way the school is and how Mickey talked about Justin earlier he feels it might be the former and that really isn’t good for his disguise.

 

Ian keeps turning his head away so Mickey won’t get a better look. He then hears the shorter man clear his throat, “Uh, hey, you uh mind if I borrow your shampoo?”

“What?” Ian says deeply, keeping up with his latest disguise.

“Your shampoo? I forgot mine. Do you mind?”

“Uh, yeah, sure,” Ian grabs his shampoo and holds his hand far away from him, “There’s not much left. You can have it.”

“Aight, thanks…” Mickey says grabbing the bottle slowly from Ian.

“Sure,” Ian quickly turns off the faucet and walks out of the shower away from Mickey. He grabs his towel that was hanging up nearby and walks to the back where his stuff was.

 

He dresses quickly and walks out the door not leaving with his wig on knowing that the mirror was right in front of the shower he wasn’t going to risk it. He opts for using the mirror in his room thinking Mickey would have to be at least another five minutes maybe more so he had enough time.

 

Back in his dorm, Ian puts his stuff back on to look like his brother. Mickey walks through the door ten minutes later freshly clean and drops his stuff by the door.

 

“How was your shower?” Ian asks already wanting to kick himself for doing so. That’s not something you ask someone you barely know. Especially not someone like his roommate.

Mickey gives him a weird look confirming Ian’s thought.

 

“S-Sorry…” Ian says quietly. He shakes his head. The fuck is wrong with him?

“Whatever,” Mickey says slipping into his bed and shutting of the lamp by the table.

Ian sighs accepting that if Mickey was going to bed he’d have to also. Guess he’ll finish studying in the morning.

 

Ian wakes the next morning to an empty room. He feels relief at this. He quickly dresses and grabs his books, deciding on studying in the library today and trying to keep himself from thinking about being in second string despite his efforts. He’s about to turn the corner when he hears chatter down the hall.

“So how’s the roommate?” He hears someone say. The voice almost familiar.

“Fuck off.” He hears another say. It takes him a little bit but he eventually recognizes it as Mickey which means they must be talking about him.

He hears laughter at Mickey’s answer.

“So fuckin’ weird, man. Asked me how my shower was last night.”

The other men chuckle again.

“Least you don’t gotta worry about playing with him on the field a lot. He’s only second string right?” The one Ian was introduced to as Iggy says.

“Yeah. Thank fuck.” He hears Mickey say.

Ian peaks around the corner to watch the three boys turn the opposite corner of the hallway and exit the building. He sighs, the somewhat happy mood he had just minutes before now crushed. He makes his way outside and quickly dials Brian’s number.

“Ello’?” He hears Brain greet on the other line.

“Fuck this stupid idea,” Ian says, “Get the car, pick me up, take me home, and make me promise to never do something so fucking stupid again.”

“Woah, woah, what? What happened?”

“Everyone thinks I’m some huge geek-loser piece of shit, I’ll never see the game against Lakeshore, and I can barely take a shower in this shithole without being afraid I’m going to get exposed.”

“Alright, alright, calm down. Look, Ian, I don’t know what to tell you about the whole soccer thing but as for the social stuff… I got an idea,” Brian says trying to help his friend out.

“You do?” Ian asks a little more hopeful than before.

“Yes. We’re gonna show people just how much like Lip you can get.”

Ian groans. “Oh God.”

“Don’t worry. It’ll work.”

“It better.”

 

Ian meets with Brian and he explains the plan to him. He’ll need Mandy and Svetlana to help, which they eagerly agree to do.

 

They head to the restaurant near school which functions as a hangout for the students. Svetlana and Mandy go inside first and find their separate places. Brian sits at a different table with a small microphone telling each girl what to do. They make sure to do it on a day that Mickey and his friends are hanging out there. Considering Mickey was his roommate Ian thinks his life would be easier if he was seen as cool by him also it isn’t hard to see that Mickey is fairly popular and therefore would spread Ian’s name around… If Brian’s plan works.

 

He walks into the restaurant long after Svetlana, Mandy, and Brian have taken their places. He notices Iggy, Mickey, and Colin right away. He watches them notice him and whisper to each other then sees them spread out on the booth. He doesn’t let this action falter his fake confidence though, so he struts over to them.

“What’s up?” Ian greets them.

They nod their heads to him avoiding eye contact and try to make it look like they’re busy with their own conversation.

“Go Lana,” Brian says into his microphone from a few tables over.

As soon as he does so, Svetlana appears from a few tables down wearing a tight red dress with lipstick to match. Her hair is long and straight down her back, she looks drop dead gorgeous.

“Lip? Is that you?” Svetlana asks as she walks over to him, giving him a hug, her arms wrapping around his shoulders in a tight squeeze.

“Aw Lana,” Ian hugs her back and turns her around. “Hey, how you doin’ baby?”

“Not the same without you,” She says as she runs her thumb across Ian’s bottom lip. Ian tries to hold in his laughter to the best of his ability and for the sake of his reputation.

“I know, I know. You know how it is though. New school means new opportunities,” He smiles slyly to her.

“I miss you, Lip. I’ve been thinking about you a lot. Especially at night...” Lana trails off.

“Sweet,” Ian smirks at her.

“...and late,” She continues.

“Even better,” He grins wider.

Iggy leans over the table at that, “Okay did she just say that to Lip?”

Mickey looks at the scene in front of him, face scrunched in confusion. “Okay, what the fuck is happening?”

Svetlana plays with Ian’s hands. “It’s really great to see you, Lip. Call me, _anytime_ ,” She says and leans over for a kiss which Ian denies in what is believed to be a cool way.

Svetlana leaves with an over exaggerated sigh. Ian watches her go, checking her out.

“Yeah. I’d fuck her, _again_ ,” Ian says loud enough for the guys to hear. He turns to them and shrugs. “Women.”

They all “yeah” in agreement, laughing.  

“That was perfect,” Brian says into his microphone. “Now Mandy.”

Mandy appears behind curtains that separates the roms in the restaurant. “Lip?” She says with a grin, walking over to him. Her dress is long and flowy but perfectly accents and shows off her long legs. It’s also blue making her bright eyes pop against her pale skin and black hair.

“Hey, what’s going on, Mandy?” Ian greets, giving her a tight hug as well.

“Okay, who the fuck is this one now?” Mickey says to Colin and Iggy. The both shrug but don’t take their eyes off of the scene in front of them.

“Our school lost it’s top gun Lip Gallagher.”

Ian sighs. “Well the time has come to move on, Mandy.” He wraps his arm around her shoulder.

“I know, Lip,” Mandy says in her best cutesy voice. “In the end I wasn’t woman enough for you and that’s just something I’ll always have to live with.”

“Mhmm,” Ian hum’s in agreement, playing his part.

“It just hurts you know.”

“You know what they say. Love is pain.”

Mandy turns to him sharply. “Just know... I’ll never forget you, Lip. Never,” She cries out and turns around crying, leaving the room.

Ian turns to the table and shakes his head, “Needy.” He walks away.

Micky rubs the bridge of his nose. “Okay. Um, we might need to do some reevaluating here.”

Just then Lip’s… as in the real Lip’s girlfriend, Rachel, walks in and approaches Mickey, Colin, and Iggy.

Colin tries out what he saw from a few minutes earlier. “Hey there pretty lady.”

She looks at Colin disgusted. “Ew. What, are you hitting on me?”

“I was just uh…”

“‘I was just..’ nuh. Let me put a stop to that little brain fart you got going. Girls with asses like mine don’t talk to boys with faces like yours,” She shuts him straight down.

Colin sits back in his seat and closes his mouth as Mickey tries to stifle a laugh.

“I was wondering if you could help me find my boyfriend, Lip. Have you guys seen him?”

Mickey scoffs and turns behind him, pointing to where Ian took off.

“Lip?” She says, eyeing Ian.

Brian gets up from his table as Ian makes his way over to him.

“Not good. Not good. Don’t let her see your face,” Brian says quickly.

“What?” Ian quickly looks behind him to see Lip’s girlfriend. “Shit, fuck.”

She starts to follow him as Ian lifts up random stuff to cover his face.

“Lip?” She walks quickly over to him as Ian tries to get away.

“Get away from me,” He says as he continues to get out of eyesight.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Don’t come any closer, Rachel. It’s over.” He pushes some waiters in front of him to put distance between him and Rachel.

“What are you talking about?” She pushes the waiters out of the way still chasing after Ian. “Get over here. Lip!”

“I don’t want to talk to you.” Ian moves between a couple and behind the bar. “You’re hot, Rachel. Smoking hot,” He yells behind him as he tries to cover more distance between them. He sees her quickly coming to him and he dashes away. “But there are plenty of hot girls out there.” He runs behind the counter of some workers making pizzas.

“Get back here and talk to me,” She yells.

“The truth is…” He starts to say exiting from behind the counter. He notices a worker carrying a large stack of pizzas. He grabs them. “...you have absolutely nothing to offer.” He swiftly passes on the large stack of boxes to her, blocking her view of him. He gets away from her before making his final statement. “...and when my eyes are closed I see you for what you truly are. Which is ugly.” He hears the men laughing behind him. “We’re done!”

Rachel shrieks and drops the boxes, running out of the restaurant. Iggy, Colin, and even Mickey get up and cheer.  

“Shit that was amazing man,” Mickey yells over the roaring of the others who watched what happened. He looks at Colin and Iggy, “What’s wrong with you assholes. Scoot over and make some room for the man.”

“Alright,” Ian grins and sits down next to Iggy.

“You are like my idol now, man,” Mickey laughs sitting back down, across from Ian.

 

Ian smiles, happy that Brian’s plan actually worked. He was now a cool kid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Show us the love with kudos & comments :D
> 
> Come find us: http://bellafarella.tumblr.com/ & http://sleepyfaceandsnark.tumblr.com/


	5. You're The Man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Lip" and Mickey make a deal that will benefit both of them

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We will update every Thursday, so we'll see you next week!  
> Hope you enjoy this chapter :)

Since Brian’s plan actually worked really well, everyone now knew who Lip was. Ian was heading to class and people kept stopping him to say hi or clap him on the back. The guys thought he was the man because of all the chicks he’s been with, and the girls now wanted him.

 

Iggy comes running after him, “Lip! Yo! Wait up!”

Ian stops and waits for him. Iggy says, “I need your advice, man. I got woman troubles.”

Ian smirks and says, “I’m here for you, bro.”

 

They walk together to biology class where they meet up with Mickey and Colin.

“So how long did you date that girl for anyway?” Mickey asks Ian, Lip.

“Too long. Ball and fucking chain, man,” Ian says trying to play it cool.

 

His phone rings and he quickly presses ignore on his ex-boyfriend calling.

“Justine,” Ian says, “Chick can’t take a hint.”

 

“Ooohh,” Iggy says just then as the blonde girl Mickey seems to have a giant crush on walks in with a couple of other girls.

“Oh my God, she’s in our class,” Mickey says avoiding eye contact with her.

“Dude, quit blushing, that’s gay,” Ian says looking at Mickey. He hates that his roommate is so straight and seems to be in love with this blonde chick. He needs to get over this crush he has on Mickey, it’s getting out of hand.

“Shut up,” Mickey hisses at him, “I’m not fuckin’ blushing.”

 

The teacher comes over to their table with a big container full of little paper slips with students names on them. She instructs them to take a slip and that person would be their lab partner for the term.

“Eunice Bates,” Mickey reads aloud. Iggy looks pissed that Mickey got her as a lab partner.

Ian looks over and sees a girl with a headgear on with braces, she’s not one of the prettiest girls in school.

“You gotta be kidding me,” Mickey mutters.

Ian smacks his arm, “Be nice.” There was no need for Mickey to not be her partner or nice to her just because she wasn’t “hot”.

“Yeah,” Iggy agrees. He looks Eunice over, “She got a little somethin’, somethin’.”

“Yeah, asthma and headgear,” Colin says making fun of her.

Ian just rolls his eyes and looks at his paper slip. “Karen Jackson.”

Ian looks over and sees the blond girl nod to him and wave flirtatiously. Ian nods back at her.

“Wait, you know her?” Mickey asks confused.

“Talked to her for like a second,” Ian says with a shrug.

“About what? She gave you the nod,” Mickey says and the other two guys agree all saying something about ‘the nod’.

“Can you guys relax? Jesus Christ,” Ian says getting annoyed.

“I can’t believe you got her as a lab partner,” Mickey mutters. “Hey, switch with me.”

“I can’t, I said her name out loud,” Ian says but really he just doesn’t want Mickey to spend more time with Karen than necessary.

 

Ian gets up and heads over to where Karen is sitting. He puts his things down and sits across from her. She says, “Hello again,” with a bright smile.

“Hey, uh, we didn’t really get a chance to introduce ourselves. I’m Lip,” Ian says putting his hand out for her to shake.

“Karen,” She says shaking his hand.

“No paper near the bunsen burner,” Patrick says picking up a piece of paper from Ian’s folder. The kid is weird, he has been just sitting there watching Karen since class started.

Ian tries to grab for it but Karen has it and is trying to read it. She moves out of Ian’s grasp and says, “What is this? Poems?”

“Yeah, they’re his- my poems,” Ian says quickly. When going to school to become Lip, Ian had taken his school supplies. He hadn’t realized that Lip’s poems were in his school folder. Ian could hardly believe it himself that his brother wrote poems. His twin was such a genius in science, math, and all kinds of things, so it’s not unlikely that he’d be amazing at writing poems too.

“Wake up I’ve been waiting for you…” Karen starts to read but then stops reading aloud as she becomes absorbed into Lip’s words.

She looks up at Ian with a serious face and says, “These are really good. So honest.”

“I know. I keep telling him- me, myself-” Ian tries to cover up but then Patrick interrupts them. “I write songs too, Karen.”

“Really Patrick? That’s great,” Karen says with an eye-roll not even looking at the kid.

Patrick starts to sing in a really high pitched tone with really creepy lyrics.

 

The teacher interrupts everyone’s conversations and lets the class know what they will be doing.

 

When class is done Ian walks out a little after Karen does but then is immediately pulled back by someone.

Mickey pushes Ian down on these sofas that are in the corner of the hall where students are able to sit to study or just chill. Mickey looks Ian straight in the eyes and says, “Did you say anything about me?”

Ian looks at him confused, “No… Was I supposed to?”

Mickey scoffs and says, “This is perfect. You get to spend an hour with her every other day. You can convince her to go out with me.”

Ian tries not to let it show that what Mickey said hurts but it does. Though he says, “Dude, she’s had that option for like three and a half years.”

“Okay, look. You do this, I’ll help you with soccer. I’ll make you good enough to be first string,” Mickey offers.

“By the Lakeshore game?” Ian asks hopeful.

“Yeah, sure,” Mickey says.

“Okay, yeah, you got a deal,” Ian says. Forget his major crush on his roommate, he needs to be able to play against Lakeshore to beat their asses and show Justin what a fool he was.

“You’re the man,” Mickey says putting his fist out to Ian.

Ian grins at him and bumps his fist with his. “Yes, I am.”

 

* * *

 

Since Mickey’s offer, the two of them have been practicing like crazy to get Ian in first string. Ian’s a great soccer player, but Mickey’s better, and so is everyone who made first string. Lake Forest trains harder than Lakeshore does. Ian is going to eat, sleep, and breathe training so that he can beat Lakeshore in the first game of the season.

 

Ian’s also been setting an alarm super early in the mornings so that it ensures him being alone in the showers before he can go out to practice before school starts.

 

Ian’s been up for a little while practicing by himself as Mickey slept. The sun had yet to rise and he was out on the field kicking the ball around and bouncing it on his knees. He looks to the side and sees Mickey’s there and watching him. Mickey looks like he’s chuckling at how Ian fell after kicking the ball. Ian sticks up his middle finger at him and Mickey smiles before heading over to him to help him out.

 

They’ve been training so hard together that they’ve started this routine. It shows when they play on the field with the team. They’re practically in sync, which doesn’t seem to help Ian’s huge crush on him. Ian tries to fight it, he really does, it’s just - living together, training together, hanging out together, going to classes together - it doesn’t help him not like Mickey. Especially when he sees him shirtless in their room, or in the locker room, he can’t help but stare at how beautiful Mickey is.

 

* * *

 

Ian’s just sitting, chilling outside when his phone rings.

“Hello?” Ian says in his Lip voice.

“Miss me?” Lip says cockily into the phone.

“Oh hey! What’s up?”

“What’s up with your voice, man?” Lip asks.

Ian clears his throat, “Nothing, I’m fine.”

“Did you call my school?” Lip asks.

“Yeah, I did. It’s all taken care of, just make sure you’re back by the twelfth,” Ian says looking around at the campus. He begins to scratch at his wig, the thing gives him such a bad itch.

“Great, thanks, man,” Lip says, “New York is so cool, Ian. The lab is so awesome and we met some of the tenure professors. The robotics professor thinks I’m a natural with all of this stuff. He said he’d love to work with me one day.”

“That’s so awesome,” Ian says as he continues to scratch at his wig trying to relieve his buzz-cut hair of the itch.

“And you were right about Rachel, she’s history,” Lip says.

Ian smiles to himself, “She really is, isn’t she?” He cannot seem to get rid of this itch under his wig and now he’s practically moving it all over the place.

“Oh, look, I gotta go. I’ll talk to you soon, yeah?” Lip asks.

“Okay, bye,” Ian says before hanging up.

 

“Trouble with your wig, Gallagher?” Principal Gold asks suddenly right near him.

“I, uh, no,” Ian rushes to find an excuse. “I actually have a scalp condition.”

“No you don’t,” Gold says.

“Yeah, I do,” Ian says back. “I really do. It’s, um, really acting up…”

“No you don’t. You’ve got male pattern baldness,” Gold says pointing at him. “Scoot over, kiddo,” He says as he pats Ian’s leg. Ian scoots over and Gold sits right next to him. “I don’t know if you realize but I’ve been thinning out myself. You can try all the creams and serums but it won’t work. Mother nature will do her thing. Just accept who you are, it’s going to be alright.”

Ian nods at him. Gold stands up, gives him a high five before heading off to wherever he came from.

 

* * *

 

 

In lab that day, Ian and Karen are supposed to dissect a frog.

Patrick comes up to Karen and says, “Karen, I don’t want you to be worried but Malvolio's missing,” as he hands her a flier with a missing person's report, however it’s for a tarantula.

“Oh no,” Karen says as sympathetically as she can, even putting a hand over her chest.

“Yeah… If you see him, don’t feed him. He’s got an irritable bowel,” Patrick says.

“Yeah cause that’d be my first instinct, to feed the tarantula,” Karen says sarcastically before she begins to laugh. Ian can’t help but chuckle as well. Patrick leaves with his fliers and Ian looks over at Mickey’s station.

Mickey’s waving at him subtly so Ian does what he’s got to do, hold up his end of their deal, even if it kills him.

Ian cannot play it cool though, for some reason he is just the worst at subtlety. “Hmm… here’s a crazy idea. Have you ever thought about going out with Mickey Milkovich? I see that,” He says as he points towards the two of them.

“Mickey? No,” Karen says simply.

“Yeah,” Ian tries.

“No,” Karen says finally as she starts to laugh. “He’s good looking and all but he’s just not the guy for me.”

“I don’t know…” Ian says trailing off as he looks at Mickey. “I think there may be more to him than you think there is.”

She starts to say back, “So you’re telling me he’s not just another dumb jock trying to hook up with me so that he can tell all of his friends about it but-”

Ian interrupts with, “But too insecure to treat you as an equal.”

Karen looks at Ian deeply and says, “Exactly.”

“Tell me about it,” Ian says thinking back to his ex. Justin was definitely the dumb jock who treated him the way Karen just said. Now that Ian’s free of Justin, he doesn’t even know why he was with him to begin with.

“I think that you’re the first guy at this school who hasn’t tried anything with me,” Karen says with a small laugh.

Ian smiles slightly and says, “Trust me, you’re not my type.”

Karen is taken aback and looks hurt, “Why not?”

Ian instantly feels bad. Shit. “It’s just that, you know, I don’t think about you in that way. We’re friends, you know? You’re actually one of the few people here I feel comfortable around.”

“I feel the same way about you,” Karen says sincerely.

“Good, then take my advice, go out with Mickey,” Ian says nodding towards Mickey.

“I’ll consider it,” She says with a smile.

Ian smiles at her and they continue on with the dissection. Ian’s glad he’s met Karen, even if she’s someone that Mickey seems to really like (and he kinda hates that), she seems like a great girl, someone he can actually be good friends with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Show us the love with kudos & comments :D
> 
> Come find us: http://bellafarella.tumblr.com/ & http://sleepyfaceandsnark.tumblr.com/


	6. The Carnival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Carnival that Lip, Ian, and Mickey are all supposed to be at proves to be a challenge for Ian to pull off.

Ian walks back towards his dorm, smiling that he could do this for his roommate no matter how he felt about him.

He opens the door to his room and closes it quickly. “I got you!” He yells excitedly.

Mickey looks up from his book. “Got me what?”

“With Karen. I got you in with her. Well at least to consider you or whatever.”

It takes Mickey a minute and his eyes go wide. “Oh! Oh shit.” He puts his book down and turns his chair towards Ian who’s now sitting on the bed. “What do I do? Do I ask her out or something?”

Ian is surprised at Mickey’s lack of knowledge. He laughs, “No, man. You don’t want to freak her out.”

Mickey looks at Ian confused.

“You got to have a casual conversation first.”

Mickey sighs and turns back away from Ian.

“Why do I feel you don’t do this very often?” Ian says.

Mickey shrugs. “Cause I’m not.” He looks back at Ian. “I don’t know, I’m just… not very good at talking to girls. Or anyone for that matter.”

“Why not? You’re….” Ian clears his throat awkwardly. “I mean you… uh women seem to like you around school. I mean haven’t you noticed?”

Mickey laughs. “No, not really. Look, I don’t know, I just always end up saying the wrong thing.”

Ian nods. “Okay.” He gets up. “Alright. Come on. Get up.” He motions to Mickey. “Talk to me like you would talk to a girl alright?”

“What? But you’re not…”

“It’s called pretending, Mickey. Come on.” He pulls on Mickey’s arm. “Get up.”

Mickey does as he’s told.

“Now ask me some questions and if the chemistry’s right, things will just start flowing.”

“Uh questions? Like what kind of questions?”

“I don’t know anything. Like do I like… candy.”

“Candy?”

“Yeah like candy bars.”

Mickey rolls his eyes and clears his throat. “Alright do you like...candy...bars?”

“Well, yes I do. My favorite is snickers.”

Mickey chuckles and turns his head away. He turns back quickly. “Wait, really?”

“Mhmm.”

“Mine too.”

“See.”

“What?”

“We’re flowing.”

Mickey laughs. “We’re talking about fucking candy.”

“Flow is flow.” Ian gives Mickey a friendly pat on the shoulder causing Mickey to smile. Fuck that smile is making Ian weak. Ian watches as Mickey’s smile begins to falter.

“What is…” He looks down. Ian does so as well and sees a tarantula crawl across Mickey’s foot. “What is that!?” Mickey screams jumping on to his bed.

“Oh fuck! Oh fuck!” Ian yells getting on the bed with Mickey who keeps screaming at the tarantula crawling slowly across the floor.

“Get it!” Ian yells.

“No! No fucking way! You get it!”

The tarantula starts crawling up the leg of the bed they’re standing on. Both jump quickly to the other bed, yelling, grabbing on to each other desperately before either realizes what they are doing. Suddenly they both look at each other and both scream again and quickly break away from each other as the tarantula crawls out of the door. Ian jumps down from the bed to close the door and turns around to Mickey.

“Sorry!” Ian yells.

“Don’t… just don’t do that...fake flirting thing anymore, it...freaked me out.”

“Sure, sure.” They both talk quickly, adrenaline still high from the confrontation with the tarantula.

The dorm phone rings then and they both yell again. They clear their throat awkwardly when they realize it’s just the phone. A beep is heard and then Ian’s mom is talking.

“Lip, honey, It’s your mom. I’m just calling to remind you about the carnival you and your brother signed up for. It’s tomorrow. Make sure to remind him as well, okay? See you then.”

Ian pulls his head back frustrated. “Oh right. Fucking forgot about that.”

“Carnival? Is that that Junior League annual carnival thing?”

“Yeah. How’d you know about that?”

Mickey grins. “My moms in that too. Making me go help out or some shit.”

“Oh great.” Ian says rubbing his eyes.

“Relax, man. It’s not gonna be that bad. Maybe I can try talking to Karen there.”

“Yeah, no, great. That’s...great.”

Mickey walks back towards his side of the room, taking his shirt off to get ready for bed.

“Sure you’ll be there, Karen will be there, I will be there, my mom, and my brother...Ian will be there. Fantastic.” He says to himself. He turns around in time to see Mickey’s half naked body getting under his covers. Luckily Ian already managed to get a shower so he decides to just go to bed as well. He unbuttons his shirt and strips off his pants, sleeping in his undershirt and boxers. He gets under the covers and turns off the light. He rests his head on his pillow and just as he’s about to close his eyes he hears Mickey.

“Hey?” Mickey calls out.

“Yeah?”

Mickey titters, “Is, uh, snickers really your favorite?”

“Huh? Uhh, yeah I guess. Why?”

Mickey doesn’t say anything for a moment. “Nothing. Just wondering.” He turns his body on his side away from Ian. “Night,” He says.

Ian’s confused but doesn’t say anything else. He smiles, “Night, Mick.”

The next day Ian heads to the carnival disguised as Lip with Iggy, Colin, and Mickey. He brings his backpack with a change of clothes and where he can stash his wig and sideburns when he needs to be himself.

They all enter together but Mickey soon departs upon eyeing Karen.

Iggy, Colin, and Ian (as Lip) all walk together until Ian spies Rachel. What the fuck is she doing here? He thinks. Oh right. Her mom is in junior league too and she’s a debutante. Figures. He groans and rolls his eyes, turning to Iggy and Colin.

“What’s up?” Colin asks.

“Nothing just my fuckin’ ex. Kinda don’t really want to deal with her now. Okay if I bail?”

“Sure, man.”

“Cool. Catch up with you guys later.”

Ian quickly ditches Rachel before she’s able to see him. He hides behind a tent that was labeled Psychic and quickly takes off his wig and sideburns. He unbuttons his plaid shirt and takes it off.  He pulls his striped green shirt out of his bag, a shirt Lip told him he wouldn’t be caught dead in, and puts that on. He grabs the hand wipes he packed and wipes away any remnants of his “brown” eyebrows. He swings the bag over his shoulder and goes to meet his mom in the large white tent she told him about.

“Honneeyyy!” He hears her say excitedly before he’s able to actually see her. He gives her a tight smiles as she grabs him for a hug.

“Hey, mom.”

“I’m so happy you made it. And on time too! So, unlike your brother.”

“Yeah,” Ian laughs.

“Speaking of which. Where is he? He’s supposed to be in charge of the bouncy castle?”

“Uhh you know what? I’m gonna go find him.”

“Wait but…”

“I”ll be right back.”

“Honey don’t be too long! You have to get the cotton candy machine started!”

Ian rubs his face as he quickly walks away from his mom.

This was turning into a real bitch of a situation.

He changes back into his brother. Signs himself (as Lip) up at the bouncy castle. Fakes sick to leave. Changes back into himself and runs over to the cotton candy machine where his mom was expecting him. He’d tell her Lip was at the bouncy castle but went home. Least the last part is what he was trying to do when he ran right into someone.

“Shit! Sorry, man” Ian says to the victim of his hurry as he turns around.

“Nah, no problem.” The guys says moving his shoulder back and forth. It took Ian two seconds to realize it’s Mickey. Fuck.

“Hard hit for someone so lanky,” Mickey says not looking at Ian’s face yet, thank God.

“Lanky?” Ian says. “Fuck, man. I work out.”

“Not saying you don’t. I just wasn’t expecting an accidental bump in the arm to pack so much for someone that’s not built like a brick.”

Ian grins. “Well I’m sorry I’m no Vinn Diesel.”

Mickey laughs. “Man if you were Vin Diesel I’d be across the field, my arm probably detached.”

Ian chuckles. “Sorry. Again.”

“No worries,” Mickey looks at his face and squints his eyes. “Hey, do I know you?”

Ian turns his head away quickly, “Nope.”

“You sure? You look familiar?”

“No. Never seen you anywhere.”

“We go to the same school or something?”

“Lakeshore?”

“Nah. Guess not. You do look familiar though.”

Ian shrugs and smiles. “Maybe I just got one of those faces.”

“Yeah, yeah maybe.” Micky stares at him and Ian swears he sees something there. Lust or something.

Ian clears his throat quickly. “So, uh, what brings you to this...junior league carnival shit?”

Mickey laughs. “Eh, I’m supposed to be finding this girl.”

“Oh…”

“It’s not like that,” Mickey rushes to say. “Not really. I mean… It’s supposed to seem like… like that.”

Ian looks at Mickey confused. But then he really looks at him and he realizes. Ian’s about to say a sort of line of understanding to Mickey when he hears someone yell. Someone yelling at him.

“Ian! Ian, the fuck?!” It’s Justin. Goddammit. Not now. Well not ever. He turns around to watch his ex boyfriend strutting over to him and Mickey. “What the fuck are you doing? Talking to this piece of trash, Milkovich?”

“Excuse me?” Mickey turns to Justin, his eyebrows higher than Ian’s ever seen them. “Who the fuck are you to coming over here talking shit?”

“I’m his boyfriend,” Justin says, nudging his head towards Ian.

Ian stares at him, not believing he just outed him. “EX- Boyfriend,” Ian says sternly.

“You dated this joker?” Mickey turns his question to Ian. Ian looks at Mickey begging him not to hold it against him.

“Sure as hell better than dating a Milkovich,” Justin says, moving past Ian to get in front of Mickey.

“Why don’t you get out of my face, pretty boy?”

“Why don’t you make me?” Justin spits in Mickey’s face. He wears a wide grin and in a matter of seconds that wide grin is soon filled with blood as Mickey lands a hard punch to Justin’s mouth.

Justin grips his face then spits the blood on the ground and lunges at Mickey. Before Ian can even register what is happening Justin and Mickey are rolling on the ground each landing punches on the other from time to time. Ian runs over to the mess of his crush and his ex fighting, covered in dirt and blood. Justin is on top of Mickey, trying to land punches on Mickey’s face, to which Mickey was blocking. Ian tries pulling Justin off of Mickey, telling him to stop but Justin isn’t listening and starts punching Mickey in the sides. Ian steps back, cups his hands slightly and quickly jabs Justin in the throat. The second Ian hits him, the man is coughing and rolling slowly off Mickey. Ian holds out his hand for Mickey to grab and helps him up. Mickey winces grabbing his side.

“What the hell is going on here?!”

Ian turns around to see his mother, face red with anger.

“Violence will not be tolerated here. This is a place for children goddammit!” She yells. “Ian Gallagher! I’m especially disappointed in you. You’re supposed to be the responsible one!”

Ian slumps his shoulders.

“Wait. Ian Gallagher?” Mickey asks.

Ian nods.

“You’re Lip’s brother,” Mickey states.

“Guilty.”

Mickey laughs. “Cool. He’s my roommate. He talks about you sometimes.”

“Oh he does, does he?” Ian asks, small smirk playing on his face.

“Yeah. Didn’t know you were so-”

Mickey is cut off when he hears his own name being yelled. “Shit that’s my mom.”

“Let me guess. You’re supposed to be the responsible one too?”

Mickey chuckles. “Hardly, but I promised her no blood and well,” He looks around them.

Ian nods in understanding and gestures for Mickey to go.

“I’ll see you around then?” Mickey asks taking off after his mom.

“Yeah. See you around.” Ian smiles and watches Mickey leave.

 


	7. I Got You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ian learns some new things about Mickey

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry we haven't posted yesterday (thursday), we both completely even forgot it was thursday tbh loool  
> So here is chapter 7, sorry for the delay! <3

Ian walks into his dorm room after having finally getting out of the carnival. His mom was pissed at him for getting into a fight, even though he didn’t do anything, it was all Justin and Mickey.

 

Ian sees Mickey laying on the bed and spinning a soccer ball on his finger. Mickey says, “Hey, where were you at today? You just disappeared.”

Ian shrugs, “Ran into my psycho ex, had to bolt.”

 

Mickey puts the soccer ball down and Ian sees that his nose is a bit bloody. He says, “Oh my God, your nose.”

Mickey touches his nose and removes his finger to see some blood. He says, “Man, it’s still fuckin’ bleeding. It just stopped.” Mickey gets up to grab some kleenex from his desk to stop the bleeding.

“Are you okay?” Ian asks concerned and getting a little too close.

Mickey steps back and says, “I’m fine, man.” He walks back over to his bed to sit down and Ian goes to join him, sitting across from him on his own bed.

Ian says, “So what happened?”

“I, uh, kinda got into it with your brothers ex…” Mickey stammers.

“Wait, really?” Ian asks feigning innocence. “Why?”

“He, uh, saw us flirting and went off on me, calling me trash and shit so I had to hit the fucker,” Mickey says.

Ian blinks. Did Mickey just admit that he had been flirting with him earlier? He says, “Wait, wait, wait. Are you gay?”

“Jesus Christ,” Mickey sighs, “Yeah, I am, you got a problem with that?”

“Dude, my brother is gay, you think I would seriously have a problem with you being gay?” Ian says incredulously.

“Yeah, okay,” Mickey realizes. He then says, “But you better not fucking tell anybody or I’ll kick your ass.”

“Okay, tough guy,” Ian teases, kicking Mickey’s foot lightly.

Mickey laughs as he moves to lay back down on his bed.

Ian says, “So, uh… Do you like him?”

“I don’t know,” Mickey says immediately. “Can we not talk about this? He’s your fuckin’ brother.”

Ian moves to lay down on his own bed, just so he doesn’t have to look Mickey in the eyes when he says, “I was just thinkin’, if you like him, you should ask him out.”

“I don’t know man… I can’t be gay here. You know how this school is. My parents also wouldn’t be too cool about it... The guys on the team would be weirded out if they knew. I don’t want to be kicked off the team. Soccers a big deal,” Mickey says as he looks up at the ceiling.

Ian says, “Do your parents know?”

Mickey scoffs, “Fuck no. My dads locked up, drugs and shit, who the fuck cares. He’s a real piece of shit. He would use me and my mom as a punching bag. Hates everyone who isn’t white basically. Especially fags. If he ever knew he would kill me, no matter that he’s locked up for life.”

Ian can’t believe the shitty hand Mickey’s been dealt by his father. He’s got a pretty good life, it’s better than most. His parents aren’t together, and he kinda came into this world in a fucked up way but he’s never been hurt by the hand of the person who is supposed to love you unconditionally. He says, “Shit, I’m sorry, man. What about your mom? Is she like mine? Working carnivals on Junior League and being hopped up on xanax?”

“Nah, she’s more the religious type,” Mickey says looking over at Ian. He continues, “Catholic. I don’t know how she would react but being married to my homophobic asshole of a father, I don’t know what she thinks is right and what’s wrong. She’s great though, don’t get me wrong. I’d do anything for her… I just- I don’t know.”

“Fuck ‘em, don’t tell ‘em,” Ian says, “You don’t have to if you don’t want to. It’s your life.”

“Yeah…” Mickey says before chuckling. “Yeah, fuck ‘em.”

“I do think you should ask my brother out though,” Ian says, “He doesn’t even go to this school, man. No one but me would know and I already told you, I don’t give a fuck.”

“Yeah, I’ll think about it,” Mickey says.

Ian smiles to himself, “Cool.”

Mickey sits up and tosses his soccer ball at Ian. He says, “But all this shit that we talked about is for your ears only, you got me?”

Mickey goes back to lay down and Ian smiles again even though Mickey “threatened” him. He says, “I got you.”

 

 

* * *

 

Ian and Mickey went to the gym to work out, lift some weights. Their legs can’t be the only thing they work out.

Ian was watching Mickey lift weights and couldn’t stop staring. The guy looked fucking good in a white tank top with sweat running down his forehead.

Mickey stops so Ian looks away quickly before putting his weight bar back in it’s hold. Mickey says to him, “So, uh, how’s your brother?”

“Good,” Ian says quickly. “He’s good, why?”

“I don’t know, I, uh, was thinkin’ of maybe seeing if he wanted to do something tonight,” Mickey stammers out.

“Really?” Ian says. “Uh, yeah, I can give him your phone number if you want.”

 

Just then the coach comes in and yells out, “Gallagher!”

“Yeah, Coach?” Ian says getting up to stand in front of him.

“You’re first string for the Lakeshore game,” Coach says as he holds out Ian’s own jersey, with ‘Gallagher’ written on it.

“Thank you, Coach,” Ian says before the coach walks away.

 

“Dude, that’s awesome!” Mickey says clasping his hand and doing a half hug.

 

Mickey sits back down on the bench he was lifting weights on and Ian leans next to the bar near him. Ian says, “So, you should call Ian up.”

“Yeah, I think I will,” Mickey says with a small smile.

 

“Hey, Mickey,” Karen says as she joins them suddenly. “Lip.”

“Karen,” Ian says tight lipped.

“Karen,” Mickey says too quickly.

“What are you bench pressing these days, Mickey?” Karen says looking over at his weights. “225, very impressive.”

“Thanks,” Mickey says.

Ian slaps Mickey’s arm and says, “Mick, that phone call you were going to make…”

“Yeah, what?” Mickey says as he pushes Ian slightly.

Ian glares at them before walking away.

 

Ian stands away from them and calls Mickey’s number. Mickey answers, “Hello?”

“Hey, Mickey,” Ian says getting rid of his ‘Lip’ voice. “It’s Ian, Lip told me to call you.”

“Uh, yeah,” Mickey stammers out. Karen was coming real close to him and he didn’t know what to say. “What? Uh, can I call you back?” He adds before hanging up.

 

Ian groans as he puts his phone away. He goes back over to them and purposely bumps into Mickey knocking Karen away from him. “Oh, my bad.”

“So tonight?” Karen asks.

“Yeah, sure,” Mickey agrees.

“Great! Then it’s a date,” Karen says excitedly. “Cesario’s, 8’clock? I’ll see you there.” She passes by Ian and says, “Bye, Lip.”

“Later,” Ian says waving her off.

“Dude, you did it. I’m going out with Karen,” Mickey says happily.

“What the fuck, man? What did we just talk about and last night?” Ian asks confused.

Mickey looks at him sharply and says, “Still gotta pretend man, and what better way than with the hottest girl in school. Plus, I thought we understood each other, your ears only.”

“Ridiculous,” Ian mutters. “I’ll be back.” Before walking away to catch up to Karen outside.

“Karen!” He calls out when he finds her. “Can I talk to you for a second?”

“Me? What ever for?” Karen says too sweetly.

“It’s about your date with Mickey,” Ian says simply.

“Oh I know!” She says before sitting down on the bleachers. “I’m so glad I listened to you. You’re right, he’s awesome, and he looked so good in those shorts,” She adds as she fake fans herself.

She stands up and goes to look out over the track. Ian joins her and says, “You know, I don’t think you two are actually a good match for each other, after all.”

“Well, thanks for your concern,” Karen says looking at him. “If you’re so worried why don’t you come to the restaurant tonight. We could double.” When Eunice runs by Karen yells out, “I bet Eunice is available!”

Eunice backtracks and says to them, “I am so there, it’s insane!”

Ian rolls his eyes at them before walking back towards his dorm.

 

How the fuck did Ian get himself on a double date with Eunice, Mickey, and Karen?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Show us the love with kudos & comments :D
> 
> Come find us: http://bellafarella.tumblr.com/ & http://sleepyfaceandsnark.tumblr.com/


	8. Bad Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ian wants to laugh. See it’s really fucking funny when the guy you’re crushing on that you almost had a chance with decides to date a girl that he doesn’t even like.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is posted so late in the day but technically it is still Thursday for us heheh :p hope you enjoy!  
> See you next Thursday!!

As Ian walks back to his dorm he sees the posters and fliers for the GSA dance that have been posted on the school walls the past week. A part of him pains at seeing them and knowing he won’t be able to go, at least not be able to go with the one person he wanted to. Mickey. Despite the homophobic reputation the school has, the GSA is still very active. He supposes the administrators didn’t think many would go because of the reputation they have. Ian snuck in a few meetings during his first few weeks and was surprised himself at the amount of people there. He stopped sneaking in when soccer took even more of his time and people started to pay attention to him as Lip. He grabs a flier quickly anyways and folds it tightly before putting it in his pocket. 

 

He eventually gets to his dorm and opens the door. He sees Mickey giddy as fuck and he tries not to roll his eyes at the man. He fails at trying and Mickey notices. 

 

“The fuck’s with you, man?” Mickey asks. 

Ian wants to tell him. He wants to tell him so badly. The truth, the whole truth but he can’t so he just sighs. 

“Karen she uhh… set me up with Eunice.” 

Mickey jokingly winces. “Ouch, man.” 

“Yeah...” 

“She’s nice though at least.”

Ian just grunts in response. 

“Look. I’m sorry about your brother.” 

Ian looks up sharply. 

“You didn’t tell him anything did you? Like that I was…”

“No.” Ian says quickly. “I didn’t tell him anything.” 

“Okay good.” 

Ian looks down. 

“Well,” Mickey says playfully slapping Ian on the leg. “Gotta get ready for my date with Karen.” 

Ian sighs and sits back on his bed. He glimpses at Mickey now again as the dark haired man tries on several different shirts to find the right one. He opts for a black one with slight silver stripes running down it. 

He turns to Ian. “This good you think?” Mickey asks. “Lip?”

“Huh? Yeah. I’m sure she’ll like it.” 

“Thanks.” 

“Sure.” 

Mickey sprays his neck with his body spray and pockets his wallet and keys. 

“See you there later?” Mickey asks before leaving. 

“Yeah guess I should get ready huh?” 

Mickey grins. “It won’t be so bad.” He laughs at seeing Ian’s reaction and closes the door. 

Ian wants to laugh. See it’s really fucking funny when the guy you’re crushing on that you almost had a chance with decides to date a girl that he doesn’t even like. Shit. Ian thinks. He feels like he’s in a fucking Taylor Swift song. 

 

Eventually he gets the energy to change his clothes and head over to the restaurant. He meets Eunice outside and gives her a small but genuine smile in greeting. She gives an awkward wave. 

“Should we head in?” 

“Oh yes.” She says breathlessly. 

 

Inside, Mickey and Karen sit side by side but they might as well have been on separate sides of the room. Karen was playing with her hair checking out any split ends she might have and Mickey was playing with the wrapper from his straw. He breathes in, remembering what Lip taught him. 

“S-so.” He finally says turning to her. “Do you l-like...candy?” 

Karen turns to him. “What?”

“Candy? Do you like…” He looks down realizing Karen wasn’t the least bit interested. He goes back to playing with the paper wrapper when he hears the ding of the door to the restaurant. He looks up and sees Ian and Eunice, Eunice pulling Ian towards them. She was strong for such a tiny person. 

Karen sees the same thing Mickey does and grabs him, pulling him towards her, and starts making out with him.  The fuck? Mickey thinks but he doesn’t pull her off of him. He reacts to the kissing, running his hands through her hair like his brothers told him about when he was nine, then he feels a hard shove in his chest. 

“Lip!” Karen says excitedly. 

Ian smiles and gestures his head to Karen and Mickey. “Karen. Mickey,” He says. “You guys know Eunice.” 

Eunice sits down and scoots to the far end of the table. Ian sits next to her. Ian can feel both women’s eyes on him but he’s looking at Mickey fiddling with something on the table.   Suddenly Karen wraps her arm around Mickey and Ian sees confusion on the man’s face. 

“I was just telling Mickey here how nice it is to have a real man around.”

“Y-you were?”

“Well I was about to.” Karen smiles. “Isn’t it nice to have a real man, Eunice?” 

“So nice.” Eunice says as her fingers climb up Ian’s bicep. 

“It’s so difficult to find a real man. Isn’t it?” Karen asks. 

“So...difficult.” Eunice comments getting even closer to Ian as Karen lips clash with Mickey’s again. Eunice’s hands move down lower, under the table and Ian can’t take it. He gets up sharply, Eunice almost falling in the booth behind him. 

“I got to go. This has been real fun but I uhh…” Ian looks at the scene before him. “I had something bad at lunch and I don’t feel well. Sorry.” He turns to his date. “Sorry Eunice.” He takes off out the door. 

“Ohhkayy,” Karen says moving out of Mickey’s grasp and standing up. “This was lovely. Let’s do it again sometime. Soon..” 

“What?” 

“Bye.” Karen waves and turns around to leave. Mickey is left staring at her he then looks back to Eunice and sighs. 

“So ...do you like...candy?” He asks. 

Eunice leans over. “It’s only my favorite thing that I’m not allowed to have.” She says smiling widely, her metal braces shining from the overhead light hitting them. Mickey turns back to the waiter. 

“Check! Check, please.” 

 

Mickey comes back to their room not long after Ian did himself. He’s surprised to see his roommate back so soon. Ian thought his date with Karen was going well. 

He’s about to open his mouth to ask Mickey about it when Mickey already answers with a “Don’t even.” 

Ian shrugs and sits back down on his bed. 

“What was with you tonight?” Mickey asks. 

“Nothing. Just didn’t feel well.” 

“Uhuh.” Mickey doesn’t seem to believe him but he also doesn’t try to get more out of Ian, to Ian’s relief. 

“You going to that brunch thing tomorrow?” Mickey asks as he takes off his dress shirt. 

“Uh yeah.” 

Mickey nods. “Is your brother?” He asks not looking up to Ian. 

Ian’s smile begins to appear on his lips. “Yeah he is. Why?”

Mickey doesn’t say anything he just returns a smile to Ian. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Show us the love with kudos & comments :D
> 
> Come find us: http://bellafarella.tumblr.com/ & http://sleepyfaceandsnark.tumblr.com/


	9. The Brunch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seriously, what was up with these functions on Saturday mornings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're like a couple minutes late into posting this on Thursday. Sorry it's now Friday, but we're still up sooooo :p  
> Hope you enjoy this chapter! There will be 3 more left to come, waaaahhhh :(  
> Thanks for all the love. See you next Thursday!

Lip was about to make his way back to Chicago. As he was about to get on the bus he decided to call Rachel, but he got her voicemail.

 

“Hey, Rachel, it’s Lip. I don’t know if Ian told you that I’m in New York but I’m coming home a day early. Anyway, I think we should talk when I get back,” He said before hanging up and finding a seat on the bus.

 

* * *

 

In Chicago, Ian was laying in bed, dreading going to some stupid fucking brunch his mom was making him go to. Seriously, what was up with these functions on Saturday mornings.

 

Mickey smacks his leg through the blanket and says, “C’mon man, wake up. We got that brunch to go to, remember?” How could he forget?

Ian groans and says, “I’m gonna skip it, my brother’s got my back. I don’t feel like seeing my psycho ex…”

“Right, yeah. Okay, well I’ll say hi to your brother for you,” Mickey says with a wink before he heads out.

Ian can’t help but grin as Mickey leaves. He can’t wait to be himself with Mickey and not be his brother. He jumps out of bed and dresses quickly. He showered the night before so as to avoid a bunch of people this morning. He puts on a green plaid shirt, and his tight in all the right places jeans, and some sneakers before going out.

 

Ian arrives late to the brunch, of course, and walks into the room just as the woman in charge of everything is speaking to the ladies about ladylike entrances.

“Thank you for joining us, Ian. I don’t suppose your brother is with you now is he?” She calls on him in front of everyone as he moves around the room to find his seat.

“Nope, just me today,” Ian answers as he takes a seat right next to Mickey!

They begin the brunch once lady in charge (Ian can never remember her name, like he even cares). Ian turns to look at Mickey and says, “Hey.”

“Hey, Ian, right?” Mickey asks, “I’m your brothers roommate.”

“I remember you,” He says back.

Mickey’s eyes flick down to Ian’s lips and back up to his eyes. He says, “Good,” with a small nod.

Ian nods back, feeling a little uncomfortable at the lack of flow between them. He turns back and starts to eat his food. From across the room he sees Karen. He can’t help but feel annoyed just by looking at her face. He can’t believe he’s jealous of some fucking girl when he knows the guy he likes is gay and went on one stupid date with her.

 

Ian, too annoyed at the moment, gets up and makes his way out of the room. He ends up walking outside and paces. After about a minute someone else joins him.

“Hey,” Mickey says as he takes his pack of cigarettes out of his pocket.

“Hey,” Ian says back. “Mind if I have one?”

Mickey has a slight smirk on his face as he lights the cigarette that’s dangling out of his mouth and hands that one to Ian before taking another stick out of the pack and lighting it for himself.

“Thanks,” Ian smiles as he inhales deeply from the stick. Ian relaxes as he smokes his cigarette, standing side by side with Mickey.

“I think I saw you at Cesario’s last night,” Ian says as nonchalantly as he can manage.

Mickey looks up at him and says, “Really? I didn’t see you.”

“Yeah, well, you were with some blonde girl. Didn’t think I should interrupt,” Ian shrugs. “She your girlfriend?”

“What? No,” Mickey says quickly. “No, definitely not.”

“Oh, why not? She’s pretty if you’re into that kinda thing,” Ian says.

“What kinda thing?” Mickey asks.

“The female thing,” Ian says bluntly.

Mickey coughs and smiles when he hears Ian laugh. He says, “I’m not.”

“You’re not what?” Ian asks, even though he knows what he’s about to say.

“Into girls,” Mickey says more quietly than before.

Ian eyes Mickey up and down before looking him in the eyes. He says with a smirk, “Good.”

Mickey smirks back. He’s about to say something but then boss lady comes out effectively putting their conversation to an end. They toss their cigarettes to the ground before heading back in.

 

Near the end of the brunch he sees Karen step out of the room so he goes after her. He sees her sitting in one of the arm chairs out in the hallway near the bathrooms as she plays with her phone.

He pretends like he’s about to go into the bathroom but stops. He coughs loudly and she looks up at him. She squints her eyes and says, “Do I know you?”

“I don’t think so,” Ian says.

“No, I do. I saw you at the carnival,” She says with a smile.

He smiles back. “Oh right. I’m Ian,” He says extending his hand out to her.

She shakes his hand as she stands up. “I’m Karen.”

“Oh, you’re dating that Mickey guy, right? I saw the two of you at Cesario’s last night,” He says.

“What? No,” She says quickly, much like Mickey did. “We’re not dating. We went on one date, but uh, I don’t like him. I mean, he’s alright but I have this huge thing for his roommate, Lip, and I was just trying to make Lip jealous.”

What the fuck?! Karen likes Lip, but not really, she likes the idea of Lip through Ian. This is seriously fucked up. Ian says the only thing that comes to mind, “Oh boy…”

“Yeah, I know,” Karen says kind of ashamed. “It’s really wrong to use a person this way and I feel like shit for doing that to Mickey, but I really, really like Lip.”

Ian shifts uncomfortably and says to her, “You know, Karen. I’m going to give you a little advice.”

“Okay,” She says, all ears.

“Enough is enough,” He says, “You are getting yourself into a really sticky mess, and it’s got to stop.” She nods her head agreeing, Ian continues, “So you just got to tell everybody the truth, and just let the chips fall where they may.”

“You’re right,” Karen says determined, “The next time I see Lip, I’m going to march right up to him and tell him how I feel, and then I’m going to kiss him, just as I’ve wanted to since meeting him.”

Good fucking going, Ian, he can’t help but think to himself. Before he could say something, Rachel comes bursting out of the women’s washroom.

“Hello, Ian,” She says in a snarky tone.

“Oh this is not good,” Ian says.

“And hello to you, you little, homewrecker!” She says loudly to Karen.

“Excuse me?!” She says, “Who the hell are you?”

“I’m Lip’s girlfriend!” Rachel says.

“Ex girlfriend,” Ian corrects for the hundredth fucking time.

“Ohhhh, you’re the one he dumped at the pizza place the other day,” Karen says pointing at her, remembering who she is.

“No no no no no,” She says so quickly, “He did not dump me. We’re just going through a little bit of a rough patch.”

“Oh, cause I heard he dumped. He dumped you big! Like it was just this big, huge, dumping,” Karen says as she begins to laugh in her face.

Rachel laughs too before she’s on her. She pulls at her hair and all of a sudden Ian’s standing by as the two girls are in what only can be considered a cat fight.

He tries to pull them off of each other but they’re both surprisingly strong and very fiesty. They’re yelling at each other and some people come running out of the banquet hall. Ian finally is able to grab Karen and then he sees Mickey helping him by grabbing Rachel and holding her back.

 

Boss lady comes towards them and yells at the two girls, “Ladies!” They both stand still and Ian and Mickey are able to stop holding them back. “When debutants disagree, they say it with their eyes,” She continues, “Ian Gallagher, why is it that I always find you near a tussle?”

“Bad timing?” Ian says with a small shrug. He hears a snort coming from his right and sees Mickey trying to stop himself from laughing out loud.

 

Everyone heads back into the banquet hall, apart from Ian and Mickey. They sit in the two arm chairs side by side. Mickey says to him, “Too bad you’re not straight, or else you would have really enjoyed that cat fight.”

 

Ian clicks his tongue as he sits back in his seat. “Happy I’m not into girls, too fucking complicated for me. Though, guys don’t make it that much easier.”

“Oh no?” Mickey asks.

Ian shakes his head. “For example, I’m wondering when the fuck you’re going to ask me out already,” He says with a sly grin.

Mickey laughs. He says, “You wanna go out sometime?”

“Hmm, I don’t know. That’s kind of vague,” Ian teases.

“Fuck off,” Mickey laughs. “Fine, alright. Gimme your number so I can text you when’s good.”

Ian grins. “So formal,” He says sarcastically. He takes Mickey’s phone and puts in his name and number. “Call me,” He says handing the phone back to Mickey.

Mickey grins to himself, looking at Ian’s name on his phone, bright on his screen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Show us the love with kudos & comments :D
> 
> Come find us: http://bellafarella.tumblr.com/ & http://sleepyfaceandsnark.tumblr.com/


	10. Secrets and Lies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shit. Lip. Lip must be back from New York. He has to come clean.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO sorry we didn't update last week but well shit happens :p  
> It's coming to an end, two more chapters left, wahhhh. Thank you all for your amazing comments and all the love you show us with this story. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy this! See you next Thursday!

After the brunch Ian rushes over to his car to get his change of clothes and wig. He ducks inside quickly and looks around for anyone that was watching. Everyone is either gone or packing up to leave so it’s safe. There’s no one he recognizes anyway. Mickey left a few minutes ago and most of the other people are more familiar with Lip. He changes into his Lip clothes and does his hair. He sticks his hand in his pocket and finds the GSA flier he put in there earlier in the week. He grins brightly at the idea that his fantasy could possibly be a reality now that Mickey was actually showing that he likes him as much as Ian does. He walks out of the restroom checking if the close is clear. He makes his way towards the exit when he hears someone call out to him. 

“Lip? Lip is that you?” 

Fuck.

He turns around to the voice. It’s one of his mom’s friends. Luckily he’s far enough away from her that he still convincingly looks like his brother. 

“I didn’t know you were coming, dear,” She says walking over to him. Ian moves back further to the exit as she moves closer to him. 

“Yeah. I must’ve got the times wrong. Looks like I missed it.” His back hits the door. “My damn brother didn’t call to remind me.” Ian laughs awkwardly. 

 

“Why don’t you come over and give me a proper greeting?” She says moving closer.

“Uh you know Ms. Bennet I would, I so would but you know… I’m not feeling too good. I should go.” Ian quickly grabs the door and makes a run for it. 

Shit that was close,  He thinks getting into his car and driving off back to his school.    
  


* * *

 

He makes his way to his room and finds Mickey lounging on his bed. 

“Hey, man,” He says as close to giddy as Ian’s ever seen him. He sits up straight. “What were you up to today?”

 

“Huh? Oh I was uh… I was…”  Shit.  Ian thinks.  He forgot to come up with an excuse.  “I was umm practicing. Yeah practicing.” 

 

Mickey doesn’t seem to notice his quick save. “Oh okay. Cool.”

“How was the brunch?” Ian says lightly, trying to not sound as eager to hear Mickey’s side as he is. 

“It was good.”

“Yeah?” 

“Mhmm.” 

“You uh… You talk to my brother?” 

Mickey smiles. “I did.” 

He wasn’t making this easy was he.  “Oh? And how did that go?”

“Went well.” 

“You still interested in him?” 

Mickey’s smile widened almost sticking his tongue out. “Very.” 

Ian laughed.  Thank fuck.  “Good to know.” 

“Yeah…” Mickey looks down at his hands “Dude your brother…” 

“Yeah?”

“Is hot as fuck.” Mickey laughs. “I don’t get it.”

“Get what?”

“How is is that you two are related? I mean there’s him and then well…” He looks at Ian. “There’s you.” 

Ian (as Lip of course) looks at him, offended causing Mickey to crack up. “We’re fuckin’ twins asshole,” Ian says, granted he was almost blushing from Mickey calling him  him  ‘hot as fuck’. 

 

Mickey continues to laugh. “I don’t see it.” 

“Fuck you.” But Ian laughs too. He can’t help it. Mickey’s laugh is fucking contagious. 

 

* * *

 

Later that evening Ian decided to get pizza with some guys from the team. Mickey stays at the dorms claiming  he’s still too full from the brunch but really he just wants to text Ian some. 

 

Twenty minutes in after sending a sort of greeting text Mickey still doesn’t hear anything back. “Oh right. Said call.” He tries calling but again nothing.  Could be busy.  Mickey thinks.  Or lost his phone or something.  Mickey tries not to feel bad about it. He’ll just try again later but it makes him glum anyways. He decides to head out to the field, kick the ball around a bit to cheer himself up. 

 

Lip arrives to his new school late that night after a hectic bus ride and time waiting for said bus. He hops out of his taxi and takes in the environment. He sees a beautiful blonde girl in the distance running towards him but it couldn’t be to him because he’s a stranger to her. He looks behind him but no one else is there. When he turns back she’s right in front of him and whispers in his ear. Whispers lines from  his  poetry. What kind of school was this? Whatever it is he’s going to enjoy it if women are already throwing themselves at him. Then she kisses him, deeply and passionately. Shit, he was definitely going to like this school. 

 

At the same time Mickey walks out with his soccer ball in hand. He sees his roommate getting out of a cab and almost calls to him when he sees Karen running towards him. He furrows his brow in confusion. And then he sees it. He sees them kissing, passionately like they were secret lovers. A rage builds inside him “That fucking piece of shit.” He decides he no longer wants to kick the ball around and instead squeezes it in his hand in anger. He shakes his head, jaw clenching as he walks back inside mumbling to himself. He waits, not so patiently, for his roommate to come back in his room. 

 

* * *

 

Ian (as his brother) arrives at almost the same time as Lip does and goes straight for his room. He sees his phone has a text from Mickey and a missed call. He smiles softly, unfortunately he’ll have to call him later. He walks into his room still wearing the same smile.  He sees Mickey on the desk chair concentrating hard on the soccer ball in his hand. 

 

“Hey, man,” Ian says. 

Mickey doesn’t say anything back. 

“Mick?”

“Didn’t think I’d find out huh?”

“What?”  Oh no.  Ian thinks.  He knows. But how does he know?

“You know what? You think I’m stupid, don’t you? Look at Mickey, haha, what a fuckin idiot?”

“Look Mickey just let me explain.”  I just wanted to play soccer he has to understand that. 

“Explain?! Sure, sure explain how you used me…”

“I…”

“You just wanted Karen all for yourself huh? So you try to get me to like you brother so you can move in on her?”

“What? No that’s not-”

“I bet your brother isn’t even interested in me is he? He’s in on it too huh?” 

“No, no, he’s not. Mickey, I have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about.”

“I saw you kiss her, asshole!” 

“Kiss who?”

“Karen!”

“Mickey. Listen to me. I didn’t fucking kiss Karen.” 

Mickey turn around shaking his head. “Right, must’ve been your fuckin’ clone then.” 

Ian thinks.  Shit. Lip. Lip must be back from New York. He has to come clean.  “Look Mickey... “ 

Mickey gets closer to “Was this a way to find out about me? About me ….”  Being gay. He then gets in Ian’s face, very threatening. “You listen to me. I swear to God if you open your fucking mouth I will break your goddamn knee caps.” It wasn’t a threat it was a promise. 

“I would never. Look if you just-”

“Get out.” Mickey says. 

“What?” 

“Get the fuck out!” He yells, his voice booms through the room as he forcefully shoves Ian out the door. He locks it behind him and Ian is left staring at the crimson door that separates them. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Show us the love with kudos & comments :D
> 
> Come find us: http://bellafarella.tumblr.com/ & http://sleepyfaceandsnark.tumblr.com/


	11. The Big Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's finally here... THE BIG GAME

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops it's Friday, sorry for the late post. Hope you enjoy this chapter, the next one is the last one :(((((((((  
> Love you all :D

Rachel presses play on her answering machine in the room as she walks around getting ready for bed.

 

_‘Hey, Rachel, it’s Lip. I don’t know if Ian told you that I’m in New York but I’m coming home a day early. Anyway, I think we should talk when I get back.’_

 

“New York!?” Rachel yells before grabbing her purse back and storming out of her room.

 

 

* * *

 

Patrick’s sitting in his room trying to get to the bottom of why Karen likes Lip so much. He got a copy of Lip’s yearbook and gets to a page of him, them.

“The Gallagher twins couldn’t be more different,” He reads from the yearbook. “Twins??”

 

“LIP!” Patrick hears from outside his dorm room. “Lip?” He asks himself before getting up to go see what’s going on.

 

Rachel is pounding on Lip’s dorm room calling for him, “LIP! Open up, it’s Rachel. You have got a lot of explaining to do followed by a very long night of groveling!”

 

The door swings open to a shirtless guy who probably shouldn’t be shirtless he’s so fucking pale. He yells at her, “He’s not here!” before slamming the door in her face. He reopens the door and hands Rachel a phone, “Take his fucking phone. Justine keeps calling every ten seconds,” before slamming the door on her again.

 

Rachel looks down at the phone and says, “This isn’t Lip’s phone… Ugh! Lip!?”

 

Patrick comes bursting out of his room right into Rachel’s space. “Ew,” She says as she backs away from him.

“Can I help you?” He asks her.

 

The phone in Rachel’s hand starts to ring so she answers it, “Hellooo?”

“Hey, Ian is that you? It’s Justin, listen the big game is tomorrow and,” He starts to say but Rachel hangs up saying, “Ian?”

 

“Allow me to introduce myself,” The weird guy in front of her says as he takes the phone out of her hand.

 

* * *

 

Ian’s sitting on a bench outside his dorm hall wondering what in the fuck just happened. He couldn’t get a hold of Lip since he left his phone in his dorm room, and he couldn’t exactly go look for him since the campus was so big. So that left him defeated on a fucking bench.

 

Eunice comes strolling by and joins him on the bench. “Hey, Eunice,” He says to her. “Sorry for running out on our date the other night.”

“It’s alright, it happens,” She says. “Is something wrong?”

“I got kicked out of my room,” Ian says.

Eunice slides closer to him and says, “So you need a place to sleep?”

“Yeah, the Lakeshore game is tomorrow,” He says.

She gets way too close and says in his ear, “I’ve never had a roommate before…”

“Eunice, space,” Ian says and she immediately backs off.

 

She leads him to her dorm room and he sighs to himself. _It’s just for one night,_ Ian thinks.

  

* * *

 

Lip opens the door slowly to his dorm room and sees his roommate is asleep so he tries to be as quiet as possible.

“Wow, Ian set up all my things,” He says to himself quietly. He tosses his bag on the ground next to his bed and strips down to his boxers before climbing in and getting some sleep.

 

It feels like it’s been five minutes he’s asleep before someone’s tossing something at him and yelling at him about some soccer game. What the fuck?

 

Lip gets out of bed and dresses. He heads to where everyone is going and is standing looking like a lost puppy before the same guy from this morning calls him over. “Lip! Get over here, you’re next.” The guy was in a soccer uniform and was getting his face painted by two hot blonde chicks in cheerleading uniforms.

 

To say Lip was confused would be an understatement. He’s pointing at himself like a complete jackass before a hot brunette cheerleader comes to grab him and paint his face. He doesn’t know what the fuck is going on but this girl’s uniform is so tight and she is so hot that he doesn’t even care what is going on.

  

* * *

 

Ian startles awake and sees Eunice sitting on the opposite bed dressed in her uniform just staring at him. He yells, “Eunice what the fuck?! Why didn’t you wake me?”

“You looked so peaceful,” She says in a breathy whisper.

Ian jumps out of bed and rushes out of the room towards the locker room to get himself ready for the game. His fucking game. The reason he did all this shit to begin with.

  

* * *

 

Lip walks out onto the field with his team, though he doesn’t understand how the fuck this is possible and why the fuck this is even happening. He walks to what he assumes is their side of the field and watches as his roommate and Ian’s douchebag ex, Justin, meet in the middle. They both shake hands with the referee, but they don’t shake each others hand.

God, Lip hates Justin. He still has no idea why Ian dated that fucking tool. He seems to be taunting his roommate cause he’s pointing at him as he walks away, and his roommate has his fists clenched by his sides.

 

He walks back over and is in the middle of a circle they just formed and he starts shouting about who’s going to win, and Lip wants to get the fuck out of dodge. He doesn’t play sports, he doesn’t know shit about soccer. That was always Ian’s thing, not his.

They start to play and he is just standing there before the ball comes to him. He starts to run and kick at it slowly before someone from the opposite teams steals it from him.

Someone, probably the coach of the team, is yelling at him from the sidelines, “GALLAGHER! What the hell was that?!”

His roommate comes running by him and says, “Nice going, moron,” before running back to get the ball.

 

Seriously, what the fuck is going on?!

 

* * *

 

Ian makes it to the locker room but no one’s in there. Fucking shit.

He searches his area for his uniform but it’s not there. “This can’t be fucking happening!”

He runs back out and to the field to try and get a glimpse as to what is going on.

 

He sneaks around and hides near the sides. Ian sees someone in his uniform poorly kicking at the ball. “Lip?” He asks himself. “Fuck!”

Ian watches as Lip trips on the ball and falls to the ground and the coach yelling at him. “Shit, this is my game!”

 

Principal Gold walks onto the field with Patrick and Rachel? What in the fuck?? He stops the ball and the game calling for everyone’s attention.

 

“Is there a problem principal?” Coach says right in his face.

“I think it’s only right if Phillip Gallagher tells us himself,” Gold says.

Everyone on the team is surrounding Lip and Mickey is right next to him. Ian has no idea what the fuck is going on but it looks like they’re trying to bust Lip for being him.

Lip says, “Uh… Sorry I’m not a good soccer player?”

Gold says, “Okay, alright.” He turns towards the bleachers and says louder, “I regret to inform you all that Phillip Gallagher is a fake. He is not actually Lip but his own twin brother, Ian.”

“What?!” Lip says way more confused than before. He says to everyone, “I am not Ian!”

“Prove it,” Patrick says to him.

“How the hell do I prove that?” Lip asks confused. “Oh wait,” He realizes his brother has buzzed hair. “Ian has buzzed red hair, mine is brown, see?” He says as he pulls at his hair and it doesn’t go anywhere.

Patrick then grabs at Lip’s hair and pulls. Lip smacks him away and yells, “Get the fuck off of me!”

Gold says, “Okay, uh, talk amongst yourselves...” He turns on Patrick and says, “Can you shed some light on this current situation?!”

“No, I can’t,” He says looking very afraid.

Coach rolls his eyes and says, “Alright, now that we’ve established that everyone is who they say they are,” He turns to the principal, “Can we get back to our game?!”

Gold says, “Right, right. Uh, break a leg, or something,” before rushing off the field with Patrick.

 

Rachel grabs Lip’s arm and says, “Baby, I’ve missed you.”

Lip frees himself from her and says, “Rachel, we’re over. Done.”

Rachel groans loudly and yells, “God, not again!” before running off field.

 

“Fucking hell, we’re both so dead,” Ian mutters to himself.

Coach benches Lip and a few more minutes of the game passes before it’s half time. Lip’s walking off with the team and is the last one in the line to head inside so Ian grabs Lip and pulls him into his hiding spot.

“Lip!” Ian says when they’re crouching in front of each other.

“Ian?!” Lip asks shocked, “Why do you look like me??”

“I’ve been pretending to be you for the past two weeks so I can play on this team and prove that I’m a good player and beat my old team,” Ian explains.

“Oh, okay. Wait what?!” Lip asks still lost.

“I don’t have fucking time for this! Why are you wearing my uniform?” He yells.

“I just came here to find the girl who kissed me last night,” Lip says with his hands up. “She was, fuck, she was something, Ian.”

“Wait, what? Who kissed you? What girl?” Ian asks confused now too.

“That’s her over there,” Lip says pointing out at someone in the bleachers.

Ian’s mouth is wide open when he sees who Lip’s pointing at, “Karen?!”

“She was all over me. She kissed me and even read some of my own poem,” He explains, “Ian, this may be the girl of my dreams.”

“That’s the kiss that Mickey saw, fuck,” Ian mutters.

“Wait are these real?” Lip asks as he touches one of the glued on sideburns.

“Oh yeah, cause I can grow fucking brown sideburns,” Ian says as he slaps his brother’s hand away. “Okay, please stay in here until the game is done and give me my uniform back!” Ian rushes out to say as he starts to strip his brother of his uniform.

 

They switch clothes and Ian goes running onto the field with everyone else. The game is still tied 0-0 so Ian’s got a chance to get shit going. He just needs to convince his coach to put him back in the game.

“I’m ready to play, coach, really play,” Ian pleas.

“Is that what you called it?” Coach asks.

“I’ve changed! Give me one more chance,” Ian tries harder.

Coach nods and says, “Alright, go, go!”

Ian runs out onto the field and starts to really play the game right.

 

With his help, Mickey’s scores the first goal for their team. They’re all so ecstatic. They continue to play and Ian passes it to Mickey and calls out to him to pass it back but he isn’t.

“Mickey! I’m open! Give me the ball!” Ian yells to him.

Mickey loses the ball and coach yells at him to get it back, and now the game is tied up, 1-1.

 

Ian sees Colin and Iggy running next to Mickey yelling shit to him and Mickey running off. Ian runs to catch up to Mickey and says, “Mickey, I know you’re mad at me but I didn’t do what you think I did!”

Mickey stops and yells at him, “Get out of my face!”

Ian stops too and yells, “Nothing is going on with me and Karen! I’ll explain everything when the game is over but for right now you have to like me cause I’m your teammate. We have to beat these guys, I HAVE TO BEAT THESE GUYS!”

 

The game seemed to have stopped and Justin comes in the middle of them and says to Mickey, “Are we disturbing you or something? We kind of have a game going on over here…”

Mickey shoves Justin away, “Get back in the net, man!”

They start going at it and shoving at each other and soon enough both teams are completely fighting with each other.

 

Coach comes barreling through and separates Mickey and Justin from each other. “If you want to fight get off of my field. If not, get on with the game!”

 

Everyone moves away and Karen comes running onto the field and to Ian. “Lip, are you okay?”

“Karen, not now,” Ian says as Mickey passes them, “Why don’t you tell me how it’s not like that with you and Karen?”

“There is nothing going on with me and Karen!” Ian yells.

“What about last night?” Karen asks so small.

He looks right at Mickey and says, “I didn’t lie to you, Mickey. I did but not about this. Here’s the truth. I like you.”

 

Everyone who was walking by them stops to listen. “What?!” Mickey says louder than how Karen said it.

“Dude, that’s just, no, what the fuck?” Mickey asks confused.

“I can’t do this anymore,” Ian says as he starts to back up. “Everybody I got something to tell you. I’m not Lip,” He steps closer to Mickey, “I’m Ian.”

Mickey looks him dead in the eyes and says, “You’re not Ian.”

“Yes, I am,” Ian says more sternly. He can see that Mickey doesn’t believe him so he starts to explain all while taking off his disguise from his sideburns to his eyebrows to his wig, “I got suspended from my team at Lakeshore, and my asshole ex-boyfriend lied saying I wasn’t a good player and that I couldn’t get into this school and play for this team. So… I pretended to be my brother while he was in New York for the past two weeks. So I could make the team and beat Lakeshore. But my brother came home early and that’s who you saw kissing Karen and that’s who played the first half.”

“So if I kissed your brother, where is he?” Karen asks.

Lip shows up next to Karen and says to her, “Hey.”

She looks between Ian and Lip and says, “Okay, this is freaking me out.”

“See, Mickey. I didn’t betray you. I’m sorry, this isn’t the way I wanted to tell you and I didn’t want to hurt you, but I just wanted to prove that I was good enough. All I’m asking for is a chance,” Ian says not sure if he means the game or him.

“There’s no denying you’re good enough to play on this team,” Mickey says carefully. The team starts to holler in agreement.

Ian’s old coach from Lakeshore yells out, “No! No! No! He can’t play on your team, he doesn’t even go to Lake Forest, all players must be from the school their playing on. Check the manual.” He hands the other coach the manual who then rips it in half and says, “What manual?”

 

The other team goes back to their side and coach winks at Ian. They resume the game, with Ian playing as himself.

 

Ian gets knocked down by a player and gets a penalty shot. He lines up the ball where he’s going to shoot, with only Justin in the net.

 

Justin’s hopping back and forth in the net with a smug fucking grin on his face. He says to Ian, “Where you going to kick it?” He puts his hand out to the left, “Here? I know you’re going to kick it here.” Justin’s taunting Ian trying to psyche him out.

 

Ian kicks the ball and Justin pushes it out. But Mickey jumps up and head butts the ball back to Ian who jumps high in the air like Mickey taught him and kicks the ball right into the net.

 

They just scored the winning goal.

 

Ian jumps up from where he fell to the ground and starts shouting in victory. Justin’s laying on the floor having a tantrum like the four year old he is, and Ian couldn’t be more satisfied.

 

Colin comes running to him and picks him up as they celebrate. When he puts him down Ian sees Mandy, Svetlana, and Brian so he runs to them.

 

Lip comes over to him and he hugs his brother tightly. “Oh! There’s someone I want you to officially meet,” He says as he sees Karen on the side. He pulls her in and introduces them before leaving them alone.

 

He walks a bit and sees Iggy and Eunice in front of him. Iggy says, “Eunice, I like you, and I’m not afraid to admit it.”

Ian watches on in horror as they make out on the field. He moves around them but only makes it two steps when he sees Mickey across the field.

 

He looks at him hopeful but it soon dies when he sees the look on his face. Mickey’s shaking his head at him and walking away from him. Fuck, Ian really screwed up his chances with Mickey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Show us the love with kudos & comments :D
> 
> Come find us: http://bellafarella.tumblr.com/ & http://sleepyfaceandsnark.tumblr.com/


	12. The Dance & Ever After

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ian has to think of something to make things right again with Mickey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omg it's over!!!! We want to cry :(((((  
> This has been soooo fun to write together & we will definitely be writing more fics together (we just need to get drunk first and come up with ideas ahhahaha)  
> We love you all & thank you so much for all the kudos and comments y'all have left us, it means so much to us! 
> 
> Till next time! <3

It’s been a few days since Ian revealed everything at the big game. Lip moved himself in Ian’s, _his_ dorm room comfortably and was getting along with everyone, which Ian’s grateful about. At least he didn’t screw them both over with his confession.

 

Ian has been trying to find Mickey to talk to him since he isn’t answering Ian’s calls. He finally finds Mickey at the cafeteria sitting alone. He walks over to him.

“Hey,” He says uneasily.

Mickey barely glances up but does enough so Ian knows he heard him.

“Look I know you’re pissed at me for lying to you and shit. I just-” Ian sighs, “I just wanted to say I’m sorry.”

Mickey moves his arm to poke into whatever is on his plate with his fork. “I’m not pissed at you for lying,” He says.

Ian stares at him, confused. _Mickey isn’t mad?_

“I’m pissed that you couldn’t tell me the truth. After me telling you all my shit and you couldn’t tell me your fucking secret?” Mickey starts to get up from his seat.

Ian swallows hard, watching as Mickey gets up to leave.

“I thought we were friends.”

“We were. We are,” Ian says, pleading a little with him.

Mickey shrugs and walks off.

Ian watches him go and sighs. He has to think of something to make things right again.

 

Later that evening Mickey is sitting alone in the room him and Ian once shared reading his book for class. He hears the door open and hears his new roommate walk in.

“Hey roomie,” Lip says.

Shit, Mickey misses Ian if anything than the fact that he never called Mickey “roomie.” Mickey doesn’t give a hey back and pretends he never heard Lip.

Lip walks over to him anyways. “I’ll just leave this here,” He says placing a box on Mickey’s bed before walking back out of the room. Mickey furrows his brow and puts his book down to grab the box.

 

He lifts up the top and is greeted with the box covered in bite sized snickers candy. He lets a small smile creep through his lips and eyes the envelope inside. He breathes in and opens it. It’s an invitation to the GSA dance. Lip… or rather Ian disguised as Lip had been telling him that he should go. Suppose this means Ian is going. Mickey puts the invite back into the envelope, closes it, and sets it aside. He’s not sure he’s ready to forgive and forget.

 

* * *

 

It’s the night of the GSA dance and Ian is in the lobby with Svetlana and Mandy hovering over the mirrors on the wall.

 

“He could still come you know,” Mandy says as she retouches her lipstick. She hands it over to Svetlana who uses it.

“You didn’t see his face,” Ian says sadly. Mandy and Svetlana look at him sympathetically.

“Well, if he doesn’t show up, we’ll be your dates,” Svetlana suggests.

“Yeah!” Mandy agrees with a smile on her face, anything to get her best friend to not be so sad anymore.

Ian lets out a suppressed laugh. “Show up to the GSA dance with two girls on my arm. Thanks guys. I’m just gonna go take a walk for a bit,” Ian says, excusing himself from the girls and heads outside.

 

It’s dark out now. The trees around the building are illuminated with decorative lights. Ian looks around and wishes he had done things differently. Maybe if he had, Mickey would be with him right now. He looks past the trees and sees a shadowy figure and maybe he’s watched too many 80’s teen movies but something in him told him it was Mickey. This is the part at the end of the movie where everything works out. He’s talking as he walks closer to the figure.

“Say something, Mick,” Ian says still not able to see the person.

“I was wondering if this was the GSA dance,” The person says and Ian realizes it’s not Mickey.

“Huh? Oh. Yeah, yeah right in there,” Ian says pointing behind him.

“Thanks,” The guy says before taking off behind Ian. Ian sighs sadly and decides to head inside anyways. Mickey clearly didn’t want to come.

 

Just as he turns around he sees him. Mickey in a tux, hands nervously stuffed in his pockets.

“Mickey,” Ian says, surprised. “Hi.”

Mickey smiles. “Hi.”

“So what brings you here?” Ian asks, kicking a rock with his foot.

“Well… you see,” Mickey walks closer to Ian. “About a week ago I met this guy at some dumbass carnival and now… I just can’t seem to stop thinking about him.”

“Neither can he.” Ian blushes.

“Plus,” Mickey sighs. “I really miss my roommate. I really liked him. New one’s alright I guess but it’s not the same.”

Ian smiles and looks down. He grabs Mickey’s hand and Mickey lets him. “I should’ve told you everything. I was just scared I guess.”

“Yeah, I get that.”

“I’m sorry.”

Mickey nods and smiles. “You know this really hot guy asked me to this GSA dance with him. Didn’t think it’d be spent outside alone.”

Ian laughs and pulls Mickey to him and towards the building. They walk together hand in hand as they make their way to the dance.

 

* * *

 

The dance went a lot better than Ian hoped it would. Mickey showed up and they were good.

“So…” Ian trails off, fidgeting with the hem of his shirt. It’s just the two of them outside the dance again. It ended about ten minutes ago and they were just standing outside sharing a cigarette.

“We gonna go to your place or what?” Mickey asks with a smirk on his face.

Ian chuckles. “Let’s go,” He says as he grabs Mickey’s hand, leading the way.

 

A short taxi ride later and the two boys are outside of Ian’s mom’s house.

“Wow,” Mickey says when he sees the house in front of him. It’s fucking huge.

Ian smiles at him. He takes his hand again and says, “C’mon.”

“Wait, your mom’s not home or anything is she?” Mickey asks stopping Ian before he opened the front door.

“Don’t worry it’s late so she’s probably knocked out from the pills and martinis she’s knocked back by now,” Ian says opening the door and letting Mickey go in first before closing and locking the door behind them.

“Jesus, how fucking big is this place?” Mickey comments looking around the big open space.

Ian rolls his eyes, choosing to ignore Mickey’s question (or statement). He leads Mickey upstairs where his bedroom is.

 

Ian opens his bedroom door and turns on the light. Mickey walks inside first and Ian says, “I’ll be right back, gonna just make sure mom’s not dead or something.”

Mickey nods and is left alone in Ian’s bedroom. He walks around the room (which is huge, shocker). He looks at the stuff on his desk and then heads to the bed. He kicks his shoes off and sits on the bed.

Ian joins him in the bedroom once he sat down. He grins at him when he sees Mickey on his bed. He closes and locks the door behind him before kicking his shoes off also and making his way to Mickey.

 

Ian stands in front of Mickey’s slightly parted legs. He puts his hands on Mickey’s shoulders and watches as Mickey brings his hands up to hold onto his hips before lifting his head up to look him in the eyes.

 

Ian smiles down at him. He says, “Hi.”

Mickey smiles. “Just fucking kiss me already.”

 

Ian can’t argue with that so he lowers his head and finally kisses Mickey. He kisses him how he’s dreamed it thousands of times.

Mickey licks at Ian’s lips and he parts them to allow Mickey to take over his mouth. Their tongues lick and taste each other, loving the feel of each other. Mickey pulls Ian’s hips down so Ian straddles Mickey. They moan out at the feel of each other pressed together.

 

Ian breaks the kiss and they look at each other with lust filled eyes. Ian gets off of Mickey and they both start removing all of their clothing. They’re both left in their boxers when Mickey moves up the bed to lay against the headboard. Ian crawls between his legs and straddles him again. The feel is more intense now that they only have the thin fabric of their boxers between them.

 

Ian kisses down Mickey’s jaw to his neck. He runs his hand through Mickey’s hair, pushing his head more to the side to have better access to his neck, where he sucks a dark mark into his pale skin.

 

Mickey arches his hips up as Ian pulls on his hair and sucks on his neck. Ian grinds down on him creating the most amazing friction. Mickey needs more.

 

He pulls Ian off of him and kisses him hard. He says against his lips, “I need you. Now, Ian.”

Ian makes a noise that comes from deep within him. Knowing how much Mickey wants, needs him is turning him on more than anything else.

Ian moves down Mickey’s body and slowly removes his boxers. He does the same with his own before settling himself between Mickey’s parted legs. He takes Mickey’s thighs in his hands and massages them. He flattens his hands down on his thighs and moves them up and back down.

 

Mickey watches as Ian caresses his body, his face so close to his hard dick. Ian takes Mickey into his hand and strokes him up and down making Mickey’s eyes flutter close.

 

“Look at me,” Ian breaths near his dick. When Mickey opens his eyes and meets Ian’s green ones all he wants to do is watch because Ian takes the head of Mickey’s dick into his mouth and swirls his tongue like it’s a fucking popsicle.

“Fuck,” Mickey whispers. Ian takes him deeper into his mouth as he hollows his cheeks. He moans around Mickey, which makes Mickey jerk his hips up into Ian.

Ian lets him so Mickey does it again, fucking his mouth.

 

Ian pulls off of Mickey as he reaches into his bedside table for lube and a condom. He tosses them to the bed and is soon flipped onto his back by Mickey.

 

Mickey’s sitting on his lap and can’t help but grind his ass down into Ian’s leaking cock.

“Jesus Christ, Mickey,” Ian moans out as he grabs hold of Mickey’s hips. Mickey does it again as Ian’s fingers dig into his skin.

 

Mickey moves off of Ian’s lap to repay the favor. He takes him down his throat like a fucking champ. Ian’s never been with someone who was able to suck his dick like Mickey is right now. He’s deep throating him like his life depends on it.

“Fuck, Mickey, you’re so hot,” Ian moans running his hand through Mickey’s hair.

Mickey moans around the dick in his mouth and his hips rut against the sheet once at Ian’s compliment.

Ian pulls Mickey’s hair slightly to get him off before this is over too quickly. Mickey climbs back onto Ian’s lap and takes the lube and hands it to Ian.

Ian squirts some onto his fingers before rubbing them to warm the liquid up. Mickey lifts his hips slightly so Ian could bring his fingers to his entrance.

Ian circles a finger around Mickey’s hole before inserting one finger. Mickey moans lowly at the feel of Ian inside him. Ian adds another and fucks them in and out of Mickey before adding a third finger.

“Jesus-” Mickey chokes out. “I’m good, fuck - Ian, get in me.”

Ian removes his fingers, takes the condom and rolls it over his shaft before squirting a bit more lube onto it. Mickey takes him into his hand and strokes up and down making Ian swear under his breath and close his eyes, enjoying the feeling.

Mickey positions himself over Ian’s dick before sinking down onto it. They both moan out at the feeling of each other. Mickey’s fully seated when Ian grabs hold of his hips.

“You good?” He asks him.

Mickey nods his head before looking him in the eyes. He lifts himself before sinking back down. Picking up the pace, they continue to move with each other.

As Mickey rides Ian harder, Ian can’t help but tell him, “You look so fucking good riding me, Mick. Fuck, so hot.”

Mickey slams down on Ian hitting his own sweet spot as he moans out. Ian wraps his arms around Mickey’s back before flipping them over. With Mickey on his back, he wraps his legs around Ian’s waist as Ian fucks him relentlessly. He slams in and out of Mickey, moaning at the feel of how tight he is and how he’s scratching at his back.

He hits that spot deep in Mickey causing him to moan louder, scratch harder, and kiss him deeper. He tells him, “Don’t stop. Right there, _fuck, Ian._ ”

 

Ian takes Mickey’s dick into his hand and strokes him up and down. Mickey fucks back onto Ian’s cock and up into his fist. He clenches around Ian’s dick as his orgasm builds up and he explodes. His hands are at the back of Ian’s neck pulling him close to him. Ian swallows Mickey’s moans and cries as he comes. Ian’s right behind him as he reaches his orgasm as well.

 

Ian’s arms give out and he lays flat on top of Mickey. He pushes him off when he gets too uncomfortable. They lay next to each other, regaining their breaths.

 

“Fucking finally,” Ian says as he looks over at Mickey.

Mickey laughs. “Shut up.”

“No,” Ian says propping himself up on his elbow, looking down at Mickey. “Mick, I’ve wanted this since I met you as my brother. I like you so much.”

Mickey pulls Ian to him and kisses him deeply, running his hands through his red hair. He pulls back just enough so they could look at each other and says, “I like you too.”

Ian grins at him before crashing their mouths back together. They laugh as they kiss, rolling around on Ian’s big bed.

 

“You ready for round two or you need some time, firecrotch?” Mickey asks with a smirk.

Ian laughs. He says, smirk of his own in place, “I’m always up for more with you.”

 

Ian may have posed as his brother to prove he could play soccer better than his ex but he ended up getting more than he thought he would when he met Mickey. He scored the winning goal in more ways than one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come find us: http://bellafarella.tumblr.com/ & http://sleepyfaceandsnark.tumblr.com/


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